The Clone
by KATTALNUVA
Summary: Sequel to Day of the Dragon King. Yusei and Akiza are trying to start their family, when a fierce masked monster with awesome powers swears revenge on all five of the signers, though they don't know what crime they have commited.
1. 3rd time's the charm, or not

**Introduction**

**Yusei Fudo. A person with the uncanny ability to bring people together. It is said that it only takes one person to change the world, but those kinds of people are one in a million. This is why the devil wanted to add the soul of Yusei Fudo to his collection. First he unleashed the damned soul of Damian the bad, a demonic turbo duelist with the power of Exodia at his command. To save his friends from an eternity of damnation that they didn't deserve, Yusei faced Damian in a deadly duel on Hell's Highway and barely got out alive. The devil was about to claim Yusei's soul anyway, but then the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael intervened, saying that God wouldn't allow the boy's soul to be taken. Yusei was returned to our world with no recollection of having been in Hell, and was quickly rushed to the hospital by his friends. The next day he and Akiza confessed their true feelings for each other.**

**Two years later Yusei and Akiza were and engaged and made arrangements to be married. Knowing that such a bond of love would shield Yusei from his influence forever, the devil sent his minion, the demon lord Drakonadon. But Drakonadon could not return to the world of men unless the five fragments of his medallion of power, which had millennia ago been scattered across the Earth, were brought together. Drakonadon dispatched his dragon servants to retrieve the fragments, one of which had accidentally been picked up by Leo, who attempted to destroy it. In order to protect it, Drakonadon had the medallion fragment bond itself to Leo's body. While Yusei and the other signers fought against Drakonadon's minions, Leo battled the demon that was trying to take over his body. When Drakonadon regained his earthly body he engaged Yusei in a deadly duel with the fiercest monster he had ever seen, Aggemoah the Destroyer. During the duel Jack had been mortally wounded by falling debris, only to be miraculously healed by someone whom Yusei and friends still have a hard time believing who he had to be. Despite the impossible odds Yusei was able to come out on top. Drakonadon was forced to return to Hell empty handed, Yusei and Akiza could now be married in peace, and Leo had been given a unique gift by the man who saved Jack, what appeared to be nothing more than an ornate piece of wood with Leo's name on it, or is it?**

"I really hate this mark."

Yusei Fudo was referring to the mark on his cheek. It made him very distinctive even when wearing a disguise, so he needed a jacket with a collar big enough to hide that portion of his face. Why was he wearing a disguise in the first place? He didn't want to draw attention to himself or what he was doing. A few months ago he and Akiza were married, and the headline of the day was, "Black Rose and Shooting Star." So now he and Akiza were trying to keep what they were doing a secret…. for as long as possible.

"Luckily this is probably the one place in the city where those vultures aren't looking for me."

Yusei had come alone to public library looking for information that would help him with his next big opponent. He was about to face something scarier than dark signers, damned souls back from the grave, dragons, or demon lords… he was facing the concept of parenthood.

Not long ago Akiza told Yusei that she wanted a baby, not just to fulfill her own parents' wishes for grandchildren, but because she wanted a child of her own. Yusei wasn't sure he was ready to be a father, he never even knew his own parents, he was also raised in an orphanage and spent most of his life on the streets, but Martha had told him before he got married that a man had to put his wife before himself, so Yusei agreed that they would try. For awhile he had been worried that someone had recognized him when he went in disguise to purchase some home pregnancy tests, but so far the only things that had made the news was that some esteemed scientist had been murdered, and that there had been a break-in at the impound center.

"Now let's see here… This looks like a good one."

Yusei sat down with a book titled, "The Principles of Fatherhood." He also took out a small notepad to jot things down.

"Love: A father must give of himself."

Yusei had put his life on the line, among other things, for his friends on more than one occasion. This wouldn't be a problem.

"Nurture: Children must learn from their parents, and parents must oversee their children when raising them. Discipline: Some people think it simply means punishing their children when they do something bad, but it really means teach and prepare. Commitment and responsibility?"

Yusei felt his wedding ring underneath his glove. Commitment wasn't going to be an issue. And when it came to responsibility, he had the fate of the world on his shoulders before.

"Closeness: Fathers must bond with their kids. And Consistency: Parents must establish a routine of being with their children, having time together as a family."

Before Yusei read anymore he could feel his phone vibrating.

"Oh my gosh! She's ready to do the test! I better hurry home!"

Yusei left the library and went somewhere he could change out of his disguise. He didn't need it if he was just going home. When he was done he went outside and pulled out a remote from his jacket. He had reprogrammed his runner's auto-pilot so that it could come and pick him up by itself if he ever needed it to. It arrived in about five minutes.

"Better not be late." he thought as he drove his runner through the city streets "I know what she's like when she's angry."

As a wedding present, Akiza's parents had bought them a reasonably priced penthouse apartment in a nice neighborhood. Yusei always took his runner with him to the top floor because he didn't like leaving it in the complex's parking garage if there was the slightest chance it could get vandalized or stolen. After it was locked safely inside his own garage he went in to join Akiza.

"Hi honey, I'm home."

"Yusei, get in here quick!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Yusei knew the drill. If the thing changed color, then Akiza had a little Yusei or a little Akiza inside of her. For some reason Akiza seemed to be hesitating.

"It's okay… the third time's the charm." he said.

They waited a whole five minutes, but nothing happened.

"Of course I could be wrong." he thought.

"Why? Why isn't it working?" she asked as tears started to form in her eyes.

Yusei knew how much Akiza wanted a child. A few weeks ago they had gone to the doctor to see what the problem was, but they said there was nothing wrong with her. Obviously they just weren't doing something right. At first Yusei thought Akiza would hesitate before the idea of starting a family because of her own bad experiences. But eventually he could tell that she was determined not to repeat the mistakes of her parents. If she could work past her own experiences, then surely Yusei could make due even though he didn't know much about being a father.

"It's okay." he said giving her hug "We'll get it eventually. We'll try again tonight."

There was always something about Yusei that just made Akiza feel better. It was one of the reasons she married him.

"Yes… We'll try again."

**(To be continued)**

**Now available on deviatart**

**"3rd time's the charm, or not" illustration**


	2. Prepare for the hunt!

"What the… where am I?"

Yusei looked up and saw the seal of the Crimson Dragon inscribed on a tablet, and above it the five dragons floating in the sky. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He saw that the mark of the dragon's head on his arm was flashing like crazy, then without warning it just disappeared.

"What the?"

He looked up again and saw that the seal of the Crimson Dragon started glowing a vile purple, similar to the marks that were borne by the Dark Signers. Then he saw a sixth dragon appear in the sky. Its features where cloaked by the night, but it was easy to see that it dwarfed the others. Stardust Dragon and all the others unleashed their attacks on the beast, which countered with a blast of its own. Even combined the attacks of the five dragons weren't enough to force it back. Yusei watched in horror as they were engulfed in an explosion of dark energy. Then he woke up.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" asked Akiza.

"What? Oh no, just a bad dream."

Yusei wondered how it could be possible to have a dream like that when he had Akiza nuzzled next to him.

"So, how do you feel?"

"Right now I feel like I'm in Heaven."

"Uh, that's not what I meant." said Yusei.

"Oh… Yusei we only just made love, if I'm pregnant my body doesn't know it yet."

How a woman's body works was one of the topics that Yusei knew absolutely nothing about. Men were pretty much the same from the crib to the grave, but women were a lot more complicated than men, in more ways than one. Suddenly they heard the buzzer go off. Yusei looked at the clock and saw that it was a little past midnight.

"Now who could that be at this hour?"

"Let's leave it alone, I don't want to get out of bed."

Yusei and Akiza waited fifteen whole minutes but it didn't stop.

"Well someone better be dying." said Yusei throwing on his robe.

Yusei looked outside the door, but there was no one there. However there was some kind of video on the ground.

"Who goes around leaving videos on people's doorsteps in the middle of the night?" asked Akiza.

"I don't know, but it has the word urgent written on it. Should we?"

"I don't see why not. It's just video, no harm ever came from watching a video."

Yusei put it in. On the screen there was a man whose face was hidden by the hood of the long black cloak he was wearing.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Fudo. If you are watching this, then like your fellow signers you are subject to the ill tidings I bring."

"Oh boy."

"You're probably looking forward to an elongated speech about dark signers, a new world order, the prince of darkness thirsting for your souls, etcetera, etcetera, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you. There is no grand scheme here; this is about revenge, plain and simple. I have justifiable reason to hate each and every one of you, and I will not stop until my burning desire for retribution is satisfied… Prepare yourselves… for the hunt! This video will self-destruct in five… four… three… two…"

"GET DOWN!"

Yusei jumped on top of Akiza to shield her. But after five seconds nothing happened. They looked up and saw the word "BLAMAGE!" written in bold on the screen.

"Had you for a second didn't I? No I don't plan on taking my revenge with home videos that explode. What fun would that be? And it won't be tonight either. I'll give you some time to prepare, so I suggest you take that time to choose your cards carefully. And if you even think of trying to leave town, I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN AND GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!!! Buenas noches."

Almost immediately Yusei and Akiza received a call from Leo, saying that Luna had received a similar video.

"Okay Leo, calm down. Wait… someone's on the other line. Jack?"

"Yusei, I've just been contacted by Mina. We're going to be escorted to the Security Base."

"What?!"

"She says she'll explain it when we get there."

In about fifteen minutes a Security Escort arrived to take Yusei and Akiza to the base. There they met up with the others.

"Yusei, what is going on?!" asked Luna.

"I don't know."

Yusei had no idea who that person on the video was. He didn't recognize the voice, and he had no idea what crime he and the others had committed, but he could tell just by the tone in that person's voice that he wanted to beat them.

Yusei and the others were escorted to a small room where Mina and Trudge were waiting for them. Crow didn't wait for Mina to get done apologizing for bringing everyone down there so late.

"Okay, first we receive a creepy message from some guy who dresses up like the Grim Reaper, and now we're dragged down to the Security Base in the middle of the night. What the heck is going on here?" asked Crow.

"What do you know about Dr. Keith Wilmut?" asked Mina.

"Who?"

"The scientist who was brutally murdered, it was on the front page of the paper for crying out loud." said Trudge.

"Dr. Wilmut was a gifted and respected professor of biology at the university. Six years ago his only son Adam died in a car crash and he resigned from the university to work on a secret project. No one saw much of him after that."

"Mina, what does this have to do with us and our current situation?"

"Well… maybe you should see this for yourself. These videos were found at his lab."

Yusei could see from the dates on the videos that they were a little over three years old.

"Dr. Keith Wilmut, Project X. Day one, project commences. Until now my cloning experiments have proved unsuccessful. But now I believe I may finally have what I need to create a specimen strong enough to survive the process. I will create five different specimens, each using the DNA of one of the Signers, to test my theory."

Mina stopped the video, because she could see that the others were frozen.

"He… he… cloned us? asked Jack.

Mina nodded.

"Dr. Wilmut was devastated by the death of his son. He spent all his money trying to find a way to… get him back. None of his previous experiments succeeded, and then a few years ago he heard about the five of you. He acquired your DNA thinking it would allow him to create a specimen that could survive the cloning process."

"Wait a minute, how did he get our DNA in the first place?" asked Crow "I've never seen that man in my life."

"Little known secret." said Trudge "If you've ever handled money, the government's got your DNA."

"Mina, I'm almost afraid to ask but, does it say what happened to our… clones?" asked Akiza.

"Dr. Wilmut had hoped that with your DNA one of them would be strong enough to survive the process, though they lasted longer than his previous specimens, eventually they all just… died. But even so he was unwilling to give up."

The video resumed.

"Since none of the individual specimens were strong enough to make it, I have resolved to try and combine the five strands of DNA into a single host, with the DNA of my son as the dominant gene."

**BUM BUM BUUUUMMM BUM BUUUUMMM!!!**

**(To be continued)**


	3. It's Alive!

"Before we continue, I must warn you… The images you are about to see are... disturbing." said Mina.

The image on the screen showed Dr. Wilmut standing in front of a tank full of bright blue liquid; and in the center was what looked like a fetus.

"The speci… Adam, is developing at an accelerated rate. The fetus already has arms and legs. I'm not sure what the cause of this is."

Yusei and the others watched as the fetus grew into what looked like a very ugly baby.

"Though I can't explain what has caused the deformity of Adam's appearance, or how the fetus matured so quickly, I am pleased that it has survived the process and is almost ready to be born. Now all I can do is watch and wait for it to wake up…. Watch and wait."

In the next clip Yusei and the others were shown, the baby in the tank opened its fierce looking yellow eyes and started struggling to get out of the tank, seeing this actually caused Leo to faint.

"!!!"

As the baby screamed its yellow eyes started to glow, then the tank started to crack and explode.

"That… was freaky." said Crow before they continued.

"Adam seems to have suffered massive birth defects, though I cannot trace the cause." said Dr. Wilmut "In addition to his deformity, he doesn't appear to have any use of his forearms or legs. He seems to have also inherited some of the telekinetic abilities of the Black Rose. Regardless I feel like I'm holding my infant son in my hands again. I shall replace his useless limbs with cybernetic components when he matures enough."

"The doctor's notes say that… the clone, continued to mature at an accelerated rate even after birth." said Mina "Even though it slowed down and eventually stopped, the clone had physically matured into adulthood in three years."

"Three years?!" exclaimed Jack "How is that possible?"

"According to his notes, the doctor believed it was a side effect of using all your DNA."

"Mina… Did the clone really inherit my… ability?" asked Akiza.

"The doctor has recorded several other incidents that suggest he did."

"Wha… What happened to this… Adam?" asked Luna.

"Eventually the doctor had a change of heart."

The video resumed.

"I can't deny it any longer. This… thing I've created just isn't my son. I thought that by creating a duplicate of Adam I could bring him back from the dead, but all I've succeeded in doing is defiling his memory by trying to do the impossible. My wife was right… I could create a perfect duplicate and it still wouldn't be Adam. Tomorrow this video journal, my notes, their secrets, and their end results will be destroyed… These experiments are at an end."

The next clip on the video showed the doctor with his clothes in tatters, out of breath, and the lab was on fire.

"The creature has been reading my notes! It knew of my plans to destroy it! It's telekinetic powers are greater than I ever imagined! I fear that in my madness I've created an unstoppable…. WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?! !!!"

The camera had been knocked down, now the only thing Yusei and the others could see was a huge metallic foot, actually it looked more like a claw.

"I will have revenge!!! SIGNERS!!!"

After that, the foot moved over the camera and the picture went blank.

"Okay, I'm officially freaked out now." said Crow.

"Why would… this thing come after us?"

"His creator used our DNA to try and bring his son back to life, but all he got was something that just wasn't his son, so he rejected the clone, and in his mind we're all to blame for that."

"Well bring him on, I'm not scared of any copycat wannabe." said Jack.

"We're taking this seriously." said Mina "You're all being moved to a Security safe house in the morning."

"What?!"

"Jack, you saw the video. He has my powers. We don't know what he's capable of." said Akiza.

"He's only three years old, what could he possibly do to any of us?"

"He's more intelligent than you think. The doctor's notes say that one night the clone left the house, and when he came back in the morning he said he was at the dump looking for parts for a duel runner. Sometime later the doctor found him actually building one. By age two he was reading, and was able to understand Shakespeare."

"So until we find out otherwise, he is to be considered armed and dangerous." said Trudge.

"He has a gun?!" said Leo who had just woken up.

"Wait a minute… I'm so sorry; I meant to say he's dangerous and has mechanical arms."

"Oh I'm so afraid, run for your lives, he's got Darth Vader hands." joked Crow.

Akiza's parents would be safe where they were, Luna and Leo's parents were out of town, Blister and the others could take care of themselves, but for their safety Yusei and the others brought Carly, Rally, and the others with them.

"You've been cloned?!" asked Rally as they were being driven to the safe house.

"Not exactly. It is a clone of the scientist's dead son with all our DNA in his system."

"And having the DNA of all us signers has done some pretty weird things to him." said Crow "For all we know he might have the power to turn into a fifteen foot tall lizard with laser eyes."

"Whoa!!! I don't wanna fight giant reptiles with laser eyes!" said Tank.

"You don't have to do anything." said Yusei "You're just here so he can't use you against us."

"Did Mina and Trudge ever say what he stole from the Impound Center?"

"They have no idea either. But I don't think he was just reclaiming property that belonged to him."

**(To be continued)**


	4. Cooped Up

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Leo, do you really think that asking, Are we there yet, over and over is going to get us there any faster?" asked Luna.

"I'm sorry, I just so bored. And why do I have to come on this trip anyway? I'm not a signer, so this clone swearing revenge thing really isn't an issue for me."

"It'll be your issue if he kidnaps and tortures you unless Luna gives herself up." said Jack.

For the next five minutes Leo was quiet.

"I want my piece of wood." he finally said.

"Do you honestly still have that thing?" asked Trudge.

"Well of course I still have it!" said Leo "Or do you not remember who gave it to me?!"

Almost a year ago Leo had been given an ornate circular piece of wood with his name on it by the same mysterious bearded man in white who saved Jack's life. Some of Yusei's friends still had trouble believing who he had to be.

"Leo, I don't think it's anything but an ordinary but a piece of wood."

"Well I believe he gave it to me for a reason. I just don't know for what reason yet."

The safe house was outside of town. It didn't look very big, so Yusei wondered how they were going to fit everyone inside.

"Why do Yusei and Akiza get their own bedroom?" asked Crow.

"Because they're married, you bird brain."

"Oh right… Well why does Mina?"

"Because I said so." replied Trudge "Now the rest of you, go kill each other for the last room."

Jack ended up being the one to get the only remaining bedroom; he was determined not to end up sleeping on the floor.

"The rest of you will be in sleeping bags, boys on this side of the room, girls on the other."

"What sleeping bags?" asked Rally.

"Oh great…. Knew we forgot something."

Trudge pulled out his radio.

"Someone's gotta go back into town and get a boat load of sleeping bags!"

Days at the safe house turned into weeks and still nothing had come up about the clone. A general day was generally slow for Yusei and the others. One morning Crow had been holding up the bathroom, and the only thing that stopped Trudge from breaking down the door was that he didn't want to express his fury in front of Mina. One day Akiza pulled Yusei aside from the others so they could perform another test.

"Please let this work."

Akiza kept her fingers crossed as she performed the test, but it was to no avail.

"I don't understand it." she said as her eyes started filling up with tears "Why can't we have a child? Is God still punishing for my actions as the Black Rose?"

"Akiza you're not being punished for anything. I'm proof of that." said Yusei "Everything happens for a reason. Maybe we're just not ready for a child yet."

"That can't be the case! We're financially secure, I'm determined not to repeat the mistakes of my parents, and above all I want a baby!"

"Well… Maybe you're right. Maybe we're still doing something wrong."

"Yusei we've made love with the intent of conceiving five times already."

"Hmm… The doctor's did say there was nothing wrong with you… But maybe you should try fertility drugs?"

"I don't like the idea of messing with something like this. We might end up with conjoined twins."

**(This is not an attack against conjoined twins, I'm just under the impression that most parents would probably prefer it if their children didn't come out that way)**

"Well then I guess our only option is to keep trying… Hey, cheer up; we're bound to get it right sooner or later."

That smile never failed to get Akiza back in spirits.

"Well… I guess this means we'll get to enjoy ourselves again."

As Yusei and Akiza walked out of their room Leo noticed the cup she was holding.

"Hey, is that apple juice?"

"No." she said holding it away from him.

It was bound to be just another boring night, so Trudge decided to spice things up.

"Hey, have any of you ever heard the story of… The evil card?"

"Trudge, there's a lot of evil cards. We speak from experience."

"Yes, but this one in particular is a legend known only by us who work with Security."

"Whatever. It can't be any worse than the Earthbound Immortals, or Aggemoah."

"It happened years ago. It was a dark and stormy night in Domino City. Some officers were on patrol, when suddenly they stumbled on a little boy standing in the rain. When they went to investigate the boy ran away. The officers continued after him, when they finally caught up to him he just stood there crying, the card made me do it!"

"The card made him do what?"

"The officers had no idea what the boy was talking about, so they took him back to the base and found out who he was. It turned out that he was the son of card designer who was living in the city. When they took him home to question his parents about what was going on… And you know what they saw when they got there?"

"What?"

"The parents had been hacked to pieces!!! And that's not the scariest part; the kid's fingerprints were all over the bloody ax!"

"You're saying the boy killed his own parents? Why?"

"He kept saying the card he had told him to do it."

Luna could talk to spirits; she could understand that card's could speak to their owners, but one that actually told someone to commit so heinous a crime?

"What card was it?"

"Uh... I don't remember. It was some kind of prototype synchro monster that the kid's dad had been working on, one of a kind."

"What happened to it?"

"Supposedly the analysts who looked at the card started claiming that they were hearing voices telling them to do something similar to what the boy did. So they locked it up somewhere… But of course it's just an old scary story."

**(To be continued)**

**Coming up next...**

**The clone strikes!**


	5. His name is Lucifer

"I think I've waited long enough."

He had known all along where to find his enemies. He had just been bidding his time, studying them, their cards, their strategies, learning everything about them, and obtaining the necessary cards to beat them. Now only one thing remained.

"Who should I defeat first?"

He looked over the pictures of his foes several times. He was considering many different variables at once. Then it came to him.

"Of coarse… Just like in the Bible… I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter."

He gathered his cards together and mounted his duel runner. He wouldn't reach the place where they were until morning; he'd have to ride all night through the raging thunderstorm.

"97… 98… 99… 100… Ready or not signers… Here I come!"

It was about 5:00 in the morning. The storm hadn't let up, rain continued to beat on the windows and lightening flashed across the sky. Everyone was still asleep, despite the sound created by the bad weather.

"Geess…" said Blitz nudging Tank's foot out of the way and burying his face in his pillow "What died?"

"Luna… Luna…"

"Ancient Fairy Dragon?!"

"Luna… We need your help…"

Luna saw the Crimson Dragon surrounded by its five servants, only it looked like the dragon was in pain. Suddenly all five of the dragons turned to see an approaching sixth monster that dwarfed them all. They tried to hold it off, but even their combined attacks were no match.

"AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!"

Upon hearing Luna's scream all the others sprang up as if to defend themselves.

"What?! What is it?!" asked Trudge.

"Huh? It's nothing… just a… bad dream."

"Words fail me." said Jack.

"What's your problem?" asked Crow.

"I'll tell you what my problem is. We've been cooped up in this little house for weeks and absolutely nothing has turned up!"

"Would you rather be back in the city where the clone will know where to find you?"

"Maybe I would. I prefer a good fight over hiding like a baby."

"Jack, we don't know what he's capable of."

"Now you listen here Carly. That maniac's creator used my DNA in some sicko experiment to create a gruesome monster. No one gets to violate me like that, understand?"

"Got it."

Yusei and Akiza hadn't heard the commotion earlier because the walls in their room were sound proof. When Akiza had been told this by Mina she seized the opportunity to try again with Yusei twice since they came to the safe house.

"Good morning sleepy beauty." said Yusei as she woke up.

"Is something burning?"

"Yes something is burning… burning… burning…"

At that moment Yusei happened to sniff the air.

"Hey, something is burning around here!"

Yusei quickly threw on some clothes and went to see what was the matter. It turned out it was only Crow trying to make his breakfast.

It was pitch black outside and the rain continued to pour. You couldn't even tell it was day. It was about 8:00 when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

The only noise that could be heard over the phone was deep breathing.

"That can't be good."

"Tell me something we don't know." said Trudge reaching for his radio "Okay boys, man your battle stations!"

Luna and some of the others started to get nervous. After about ten minutes Trudge tried checking on his men over the radio, but no one was answering. Not long after that everyone's marks started to glow, confirming their fears.

"He's here." whispered Yusei.

Suddenly Trudge's men came flying in through the windows.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, read the Bible! What happened?!"

No one had time to answer the question, because at that instant the door was blown down. Carly and several others screamed as a tall cloaked figure walked in. His hair was even paler than his skin, but the worst was his fiendishly bright yellow eyes full of hunger and anger.

"The five singers… At last."

"Hold it right there punk!" said Trudge drawing his weapon.

The clone stretched out one of its mechanical hands. Trudge's weapon was sent flying. Suddenly Trudge was floating in mid air, he came flying right up to the clone so he was looking him dead in the eye. The clone made his hand into a fist and Trudge started grabbing his throat, he was choking.

"Say uncle."

"Okay, uncle!"

"Say… Grandma Moses makes munchy meat most Monday mornings."

"Grandma Moses makes meaty… mu… mu… I can't !"

The clone stopped choking Trudge, instead he just swung his outstretched hand from side to side, sending Trudge flying back and forth into the wall. He did this about five times and then brought Trudge back in front of him.

"Say it!"

"Okay… Grandma Moses makes munchy mean meat on Mondays!"

"Mmmmmmm… Close enough."

With that he dropped Trudge.

Nervin had seen enough and started to run.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! HE HAS ME IN SOME KIND OF TRACTOR BEAM! I CAN'T MOVE!"

"Nervin, you're running on a treadmill." said Rally.

Yusei took a step forward.

"Adam, is it?"

The clone just laughed, and it sent a chill down almost everyone's spines.

"Adam? No… I ought to have been my creator's Adam… But instead he rejected me and cast me out… making me his fallen angel… a malicious demon… I am Lucifer."

"Okay Mr. Lucifer, let's talk like civilized human beings. What is the problem here?"

"I'll tell you what the problem is… Injustice! I did no wrong, and yet my creator rejected me! And it's all because of you and your friends…"

"You're wrong, we didn't know anything about this!"

"Your DNA… your fault… Deny it all you want Yusei Fudo, I know you're lying."

Lucifer took a card out of the Extra Deck on his duel disk. The picture was facing him, so Yusei and the others had no idea what it was.

"The card speaks to me… It knows who's naughty and nice."

"I don't know what's worse." said Carly to Jack "Seeing this guy, or hearing him."

"What do you want from us?!" asked Akiza.

"Why, revenge of course… So I hope your decks are ready… That's right… I'm going to duel and defeat each and every one of you… Yusei Fudo… I choose you to be the first of my victims."

"And if I refuse?"

The clone raised his hand again. This time Rally was sent flying up to the ceiling.

"Yusei! Ack… He's choking me!"

"Alright! I'll duel, release him!"

"Very good…"

Lucifer dropped Rally.

"Get your runner ready… I'll be waiting outside."

**(To be continued)**

**Lucifer illustration now available on deviantart!**


	6. The Wrath of Lucifer!

It was still raining. Lucifer threw off his cloak revealing that he was wearing a suit of body armor underneath. Then he put on his helmet and mounted a fierce looking duel runner.

"One thing's for sure. He certainly has a strong sense of personal style." said Crow "I mean, nice outfit."

"Something tells me he didn't get all dressed up for nothing." said Jack.

"Yusei, be careful. I still don't know if… we succeeded yet." whispered Akiza "And if we did I don't want to have to raise a baby by myself."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Yusei mounted his own runner and came up beside Lucifer.

"You know Yusei, you shouldn't make a woman promises that you can't keep."

"Let's get this over with."

"Very well…"

"Duel mode engaged… Auto-Pilot standing by."

"Let's ride!"

As the two duelists raced off into the storm Trudge picked up his radio.

"Set up a perimeter. Be ready to apprehend the suspect as soon as the duel ends."

"If you don't mind, I'll go first!" said Lucifer.

(Lucifer Speed: 1)

"I summon Dragon Homunculus A in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Now there's a face only a mother could love. Then again, I don't have a mom, so I wouldn't know about things like that."

"Just make your move." said Yusei.

"Alright, I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"It's my move!"

(Yusei Speed: 1)

"First I'll place a card face down, next I summon Max Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 800)

"Max Warrior, attack his Dragon Homunculus A!"

"Why are you attacking with a monster that is clearly weaker than mine?"

"Because when Max Warrior attacks, he gains 400 attack points!"

(ATK: 2200)

Max Warrior was able to destroy Lucifer's monster.

(Lucifer: 3800)

"Sorry Yusei, but you haven't seen the last of my monster. I activate the trap card, Cloning Machine Type-X!"

Suddenly Dragon Homunculus A reappeared on the field as strong as ever.

"Thanks to this, whenever one of my level four or lower monsters is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon another card with the same name from my deck."

"Shoot… And since my Max Warrior destroyed a monster in battle, not only is his level reduced to 2, but his attack and defense points are cut in half as well."

(ATK: 900 DEF: 400)

"Now it's my turn."

(Lucifer Speed: 2)

"Now the fun begins Yusei. During my standby phase, if Dragon Homunculus A is the only monster on my side of the field, I can automatically destroy one card on yours!"

Dragon Homunculus A fired a blast of energy that incinerated Max Warrior.

"Next I'll summon Kamikaze Dragon Golem!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 2000)

"Kamikaze? Why don't I like the sound of that?" asked Akiza.

"Well let's take a look."

Crow's runner was hooked up to the duel network, so he and the others could get information on Lucifer's cards.

"When Kamikaze Dragon Golem attacks or is attacked by an opponent's monster, both monsters are automatically destroyed without applying damage calculation. Then the opponent takes damage equal to their destroyed monster's level multiplied by 200."

"I don't think that really matters, because right now he can just attack Yusei directly!" said Leo.

"First I'll attack you directly with Dragon Homunculus A!"

(Yusei: 3000 Speed: 0)

"Fortunately for you when Dragon Homunculus A attacks directly the damage halved, but I still have another attack left, go Kamikaze Dragon Golem!"

"Not so fast! I play my face down, Confusion Chaff!"

"What?!"

"That's right, now not only can I negate your attack, but I can also force your Kamikaze Dragon Golem to attack your Dragon Homunculus A!"

Kamikaze Dragon Golem flew back at Lucifer's Dragon Homunculus A and exploded, destroying them both.

"Awesome! And since Lucifer's monster was the one destroyed, he's the one who loses life points." exclaimed Rally.

(Lucifer: 3000)

"Err… I'll make you pay for that on my next turn… But first I'll use my Cloning Machine Type-X to special summon yet another Dragon Homunculus A from my deck!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Not another one!"

"Don't worry Leo." said Luna "In case you've forgotten, you're only allowed to have three copies of a card in your deck. And this would be his third Dragon Homunculus A."

"So all Yus has to do is take it out, and he's home free!" said Tank.

"It's my turn!"

(Yusei Speed: 1)

"First I'll place a card face down, next I'll summon Speed Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 400)

"Now by sacrificing my Speed Warrior, I can special summon Turret Warrior from my hand!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 2000)

"Now Turret Warrior gains points equal to Speed Warrior's original attack points!"

(ATK: 2100)

"Turret Warrior, destroy his Dragon Homunculus A!"

(Lucifer: 2900)

"I'll bet you think you've seen the last of Dragon Homunculus A, well think again! I activate the trap card Cloning Machine Type-Y!"

"Another one?!"

"That's right, and this one allows me to special summon a level four or lower monster from my graveyard by paying 800 life points!"

(Lucifer: 2100)

"Dragon Homunculus A, come on back!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"How many of these Cloning Machines does he have?" asked Blitz.

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 3)

"And since Dragon Homunculus A is the only monster on my side of the field, I can now use his special effect to destroy your Turret Warrior!"

Turret Warrior was destroyed, leaving Yusei defenseless again.

"Next I'll summon Dragon Homunculus B!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Forget the Cloning Machine traps, how many of those dragons does he have?" asked Nervin.

"Dragon Homunculus A, attack him directly!"

(Yusei: 2000 Speed: 0)

"Now Dragon Homunculus B, you attack him too!"

"I don't think so! I activate the trap Defense Draw, now not only can I negate any damage I'd take from your attack, but I can also draw another card from my deck."

"You're just delaying the inevitable Yusei."

"Yeah, a rare card for every time I've heard that. It's my turn!"

(Yusei Speed: 1)

"First I'll place a card face down, and then I'll summon Junk Synchron!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 500)

"And when he's successfully summoned, I can special summon Speed Warrior from my graveyard!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 400)

"Now I'll tune my Junk Synchron to Speed Warrior, in order to synchro summon Junk Warrior!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1300)

"Junk Warrior, take out his Dragon Homunculus A!"

(Lucifer: 1800)

"Err… It's my turn."

(Lucifer Speed: 4)

"I'll place two cards face down, and switch Dragon Homunculus B to defense mode."

(DEF: 1000)

"Wait a minute. Why didn't he use his cloning machine to bring back his Homunculus A?" asked Leo.

"Because it wouldn't do any good." said Akiza "He said that Dragon Homunculus A's effect can only be activated if it's the only monster on his field."

"It's my turn!"

(Yusei Speed: 2)

Yusei looked at the cards he was holding. If he was lucky then he could end the duel right now.

"I summon Rockstone Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"And now I activate the trap card, Call of the Haunted, which I'll use to bring back Junk Synchron from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 500)

"Now I'll tune Junk Synchron to Junk Warrior, in order to synchro summon Stardust Dragon! Let's rev it up!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"You call that a monster?" asked Lucifer "Just wait a few more turns, then I'll show you a monster."

"Sorry, but there is no next turn for you! Stardust Dragon, take out his Dragon Homunculus B!"

Lucifer's last monster was destroyed.

"Now Rockstone Warrior, end this!"

"Looks like you forgot about my face down cards, and one of them is Draining Shield! Now not only is your monster's attack negated, but I gain life points equal to your monster's attack points!"

(Lucifer: 3600)

"Yusei must be losing it." said Jack "Now that freak has regained almost all of his life points."

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 5)

When Lucifer drew his card he smiled.

"Oh boy… This can't be good." said Rally.

"Prepare yourself for destruction Yusei Fudo. I summon Vilespawn Egg, in attack mode!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

For a moment everyone just looked at the monster Lucifer had summoned, and then Trudge fell to the ground laughing.

"You've gotta be kidding me! Run for your lives, he's summoned a giant black and purple Easter egg!"

"I'm not sure… but something bug me about that egg." said Crow trying to see if he could get any information on it.

"Vilespawn Egg is a level 2 tuner monster that can't be destroyed by monster, spell, or trap effects."

"But he played it in attack mode, and there's nothing for him to tune it with." said Leo "He's left himself wide open."

"Not quite. Since I have 5 speed counters, I can now activate the speed spell, Flat Tire! Now not only does Yusei not gain any speed counters for the next three turns, but he can't attack either, so my egg is safe."

"Great." thought Yusei "Now he has time to get monsters on the field to use for a synchro summon… I guess I'll just have to get ready for it."

Yusei drew his card.

"I summon Road Synchron!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"Now I'll activate the speed spell Divide! This splits Rockstone Warrior into two level 2 monsters!"

(2x Level: 2 ATK: 900 DEF: 800)

"Next I'll tune my Road Synchron to my two rock tokens, in order to synchro summon Road Warrior!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 1500)

"But since I can't attack this turn, I'll just use Road Warrior's effect to special summon Quillbolt Hedgehog from my deck in defense mode!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"Then it's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 6)

"I activate the trap card, Cloning Machine Type-Z!"

"Oh great… What's this one do?"

"One a turn, instead of normal summoning, I can use this card to summon a Dragon Clone Token in defense mode!"

(Level: 2 ATK: 500 DEF: 500)

"Thanks to my Flat Tire speed spell you still can't attack, but just so you're not tempted, I'll switch my Vilespawn Egg to defense mode."

(DEF: 3000)

"It's my turn!" said Yusei "And I summon Level Warrior!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 600)

"Next I'll use Road Warrior's effect to special summon Nitro Synchron from my deck!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 100)

"Now I'll tune Nitro Synchron with Level warrior and Quillbolt Hedgehog, in order to synchro summon Nitro Warrior!"

(ATK: 2800 DEF: 1800)

"And since I used Nitro Synchron to summon Nitro Warrior, I can now draw another card from me deck, and I'll end my turn by playing one card face down."

"Then it's my turn."

(Lucifer Speed: 7)

"And I think I'll use Cloning Machine Type-Z's effect to give myself another Dragon Clone Token."

(Level: 2 ATK: 500 DEF: 500)

"And I'll end my turn with a face down card of my own."

When Yusei drew his next card he smiled.

"For this turn, I think I'll just use Road Warrior's effect to special summon Fortress Warrior from my deck in defense mode!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1200)

"What's he doing?" asked Rally.

"Wait a minute… I know what he's doing." said Akiza "The card he just drew must be your Turbo Booster, and his face down card must be his Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."

"I'm not following you." said Tank.

"Look it's simple. If Lucifer summons a powerful monster, then Yusei can just block its attack with Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."

"Yeah!" said Leo "Then on his next turn he can destroy whatever monster Lucifer summoned using a combo of Turbo Booster and Fortress Warrior."

"Then his remaining monsters attack the freak directly, Bob's your uncle, and we can all go home!" said Crow.

As Yusei waited for Lucifer to make his move he noticed that there was something floating in the air around them. They looked like cameras.

"That's right." said Lucifer "Smile. The whole world is watching. I told you I was here for revenge Yusei, and sometimes there is no better revenge than public humiliation."

"Well if you're suggesting that I'm about to lose this duel, then I guess I should tell you that I just don't see that happening."

"Then it will give me great pleasure to open your eyes… but first I think I'll introduce you to my most powerful monster!"

"Oh boy… Here it comes…"

Suddenly all of the signer's marks began to glow, the wind blew even fiercer than before, the rain poured harder, and lightening flashed all across the sky.

"You should feel honored Yusei… You'll be the first one to ever fall to this monster in battle… It's never been used before, but I've decided to use it as the instrument of my vengeance… I tune my Vilespawn Egg to my three Dragon Clone Tokens!"

Instead of the usual synchro summon, the clone tokens were absorbed into the Vilespawn Egg. At first nothing happened, then the egg stated to shake and crack, then huge beams of light came bursting out of it.

"IT'S GONNA BLOW!!!" exclaimed Crow.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth the egg erupted into a gigantic blazing cloud of fire.

"Wait for it." said Lucifer "Wait for it… and there he is! I give you the all powerful VILESPAWN DRAGON!!!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"Oh my gosh! It's huge!!!" exclaimed Nervin.

"It does exist!"

"What do you mean?!"

"It's the same card that was locked away! It was in the Impound Center the whole time! But I never imagined it was real!" exclaimed Trudge.

"The monster from my nightmare!" thought Luna "It can't be!"

Yusei was thinking the same thing.

As if its appearance wasn't bad enough, the creature's roar was like nails on a chalkboard, only a hundred times worse.

"Think he's scary now?" laughed Lucifer "Just wait until you see his effect. During the turn he's synchro summoned, he gains 500 additional attack points for every monster that I used to synchro summon him!"

(ATK: 5500)

"Vilespawn Dragon, attack and destroy Yusei's Stardust Dragon!"

"I don't think so! I activate my face down trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

"Yusei, you're so predictable. I activate my face down trap, Dark Bribe!"

"NO!"

"Yes! This trap negates one spell or trap that you try to activate. Sure you get to draw another card, but it doesn't really matter because you won't get the chance to use it!"

Lucifer turned his runner around and started riding backwards to he could look into Yusei's eyes. The expression on his own face was vile beyond measure.

"Long… live… the king." he whispered "VILESPAWN DRAGON, ATTACK!!!"

**(Start playing the music from the scene in the Dragon Ball Z episode "Mighty Blast of Rage" where Goku delivers the final blow to Frieza)**

The Vilespawn Dragon opened its mouth wide and fired a huge blast of dark energy. The others watched in horror as Stardust Dragon was enveloped by it.

(Yusei: 0)

"!!!"

The force of the explosion sent Yusei flying over his duel runner and skidding down the road. As he struggled to get up he heard the sound of Lucifer's metallic footsteps approaching. The next thing Yusei knew he was hoisted off the ground and sent flying into a tree, and another, and another, and another. He lost track of how many times it had happened by the time Lucifer pulled him back. Yusei felt like every bone in his body had been broken, he could feel warm blood trickling down from his lip, his arms, and legs.

"I could kill you… But death would only end your agony and your shame." said Lucifer as he lowered Yusei so he was facedown on the ground "So instead I will simply… BREAK YOU!"

The last thing Yusei felt before losing consciousness was the sharp pain in his back as Lucifer's metal foot stomped on it.

"There… broken… and done."

"Not quite." said the spirit of the Vilespawn Dragon "There's still one more thing you could do. But first…"

Lucifer's arm suddenly felt like it was on fire. He started to scream, but then he noticed what had happened. Yusei's mark of the dragon's head had left him, and had appeared on his own arm, only instead of red it was glowing purple.

"With this gift comes new power." said the Vilespawn Dragon "Now use it to make his humiliation total, and destroy the one thing that means almost as much to him as his wife!"

Lucifer knew what the dragon meant. With the newfound power coursing through his veins he conjured a ball of energy in his hand, then he threw it, he laughed like a mad man as Yusei's runner exploded. For a moment there he just stood there in the rain over his broken enemy looking at the mark on his arm.

"One down… four to go."


	7. The Jack Atlas Assault

"People of New Domino City, you have just seen it with your very own eyes!" said Lucifer to the cameras that had been broadcasting the whole thing all across the city.

"Yusei Fudo is no more! I have destroyed him! Now take your precious hero and bury him!"

Suddenly Lucifer heard sirens approaching.

"And that's my cue to exit. Hakuna Matata, losers."

Lucifer rode off on his runner at high speed, leaving the broken Yusei and his destroyed runner in the rain. Within moments the others had arrived at the scene.

"YUSEI! OH MY GOD, YUSEI!!!"

Akiza was the first one to reach him. It was dark and raining, so the others couldn't see how hard she was crying.

"Is he…" asked Rally.

"He's still breathing… but he's ice cold." said the doctor "Put him in the back of the van. We need to get him to a hospital ASAP."

"Oh my God! His cards are in there!"

Rally rushed over and started going through the pieces of Yusei's runner, he ignored the hot pain in his hands and kept searching.

"I saved them!"

Luckily the case that held Yusei's cards somehow survived. Some people would wonder how anyone could think about cards in a time like this, but they all knew how much Yusei's cards meant to him.

"It's gone…" said Tank "It's really gone…"

Yusei's friends remembered how hard they had worked building that runner from scratch. They had gathered spare parts from all across the Satellite which Yusei built into the runner that helped him get to New Domino City, the runner that helped him claim victory at the Fortune Cup, the runner that helped him defeat Rex Goodwin and unite New Domino City and the Satellite… and Lucifer just blew it into a million pieces. The silence was broken by the sound of Trudge's radio.

"We have the suspect fleeing west onto 121, repeat 121!"

"Jack, where are you going?!"

"Don't wait up for me."

"Jack wait?!"

Too late, Jack was already on his runner and was off.

"This won't end well." said Luna.

Lucifer had no trouble outrunning Security's pursuit team on his runner. One of them tried forcing him into a duel.

"Error… Cannot override suspect's duel runner."

"What?!"

Lucifer's face appeared on their monitors.

"Sorry boys, but you aren't even worthy to shine my shoes. Here's something you can have though…"

Lucifer threw something at the pursuing officers, and then the street just blew up in front of them. While they were distracted Lucifer kicked it into high gear and raced off.

"Hmm… What's this?"

Lucifer noticed another runner coming after him.

"Come back here and fight like a man!"

"Jack Atlas... nice."

Lucifer pushed a button on his runner that reactivated the cameras he had stored inside it. They flew back into the air and surrounded him. The images they captured appeared on every TV across New Domino City and the Satellite.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I have good news! It looks like tonight's going to be a double header! Yusei Fudo has fallen, now it looks like his predecessor Jack Atlas is stepping up to the plate."

It took Jack a minute to catch up to Lucifer.

"You monster! You fought Yusei first because you knew what cards he'd use, but he wouldn't know what cards you would use! That way you'd have the element of surprise!"

Lucifer laughed.

"Okay, you got me."

"Well that won't work on me! I saw every card in you deck!"

"… Not all my cards."

"Well I'll still beat you anyway!"

"We'll see…"

"Duel mode engaged… Auto-Pilot standing by."

"Let's ride!"

The storm hadn't let up at all. It was going to be another rough fight. Far away the others could see what was going on from the cars they were riding in to the hospital, all except for Akiza, she was in the back of the ambulance with Yusei, her eyes were only for her husband.

"Is he crazy?!" asked Blitz "I mean this guy beat Yusei!"

"Jack is not crazy!" said Carly

"I'm not scared of you or your stupid dragon!"

"Oh I wasn't planning on bringing him out; you're not even worth it."

"What?!"

"That's right Jack Atlas... I can beat you without even using my best card."

"What? So… He's not going to use the Vilespawn Dragon?" asked Nervin.

"That's great!" said Carly "Jack should beat him easy!"

"Didn't you hear him?" asked Leo "He said he's not going to use it because he doesn't need it!"

"I'll bet you five booster packs that Jack kicks his butt!" replied Carly.

"It's a bet."

"The first turn is mine!" said Lucifer.

(Lucifer Speed: 1)

"I summon Dragon Homunculus A in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"And I'll lay one card face down and end my turn."

"In already know what that face down card is and what he's planning." thought Jack "His duel with Yusei told me all I needed to know."

"Whoa… He looks mad." said Tank.

"Well of coarse he is. Lucifer did what he wasn't able to, he beat Yusei, now Jack won't get the chance to get his title back." said Trudge.

"No… He's mad because Yusei was defeated… but not because Yusei beat him." said Mina.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Yusei and Jack have had their differences, but after everything they've been through together… it's impossible to deny that they're friends."

"It's my turn!" said Jack.

(Jack Speed: 1)

"I'll place a card face down, and since you have a monster on your side of the field and there are none on mine, I can special summon Vice Dragon with half its points!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1200)

"And I still haven't normal summoned yet, so now I'll sacrifice my Vice Dragon to summon Strong Wind Dragon!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1000)

"And since I sacrificed a dragon type monster to summon him, my Strong Wind Dragon gets half its attack points!"

(ATK: 2900)

"Strong Wind Dragon, destroy his Homunculus!"

Jack's Strong Wind Dragon didn't have any trouble.

(Lucifer: 900)

"Nice one, you almost managed to take my speed counter, but close doesn't cut it. Now I activate Cloning Machine Type-X! With this I can special summon another Dragon Homunculus A from my deck!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Just like I expected, he's doing exactly what he did against Yusei… He may have caught him off guard… but I've made a few last minute modifications to my deck."

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 2)

"As I'm sure you know, if Dragon Homunculus A is the only monster on my side of the field during my standby phase, then I can destroy one card on your side of the field! Dragon Homunculus A, destroy his!!!"

"I don't think so pal! I activate my trap card, Demon's Chain!"

Lucifer's Dragon Homunculus was bound in chains, it had been stopped dead in its tracks.

"Now not only can your monster not attack, but it can't use its special effect either! My dragon is safe!"

"Awesome! Jack's figured out his strategy! He's going to take him down!"

"I wouldn't get my hopes up." said Crow "Lucifer doesn't look worried at all."

"Well Mr. Atlas, since my monster can't use its effect or attack, I think I'll just lay one card face down, and summon Dragon Homunculus C in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 500)

"As long as I have another monster on the field, you can't select Homunculus C as an attack target, and that's not all… Dragon Homunculus C, attack him directly!"

(Jack: 3000 Speed: 0)

"So you've finally managed to touch me, well that's nothing compared to what I'm about to do to you."

(Jack Speed: 1)

"I summon Assault Mercenary in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 300)

"Now I'll activate his special effect! By sending one Assault Mode Activate in my hand back into my deck, I can destroy one spell or trap card that you have out! And I choose your Cloning Machine Type-X!"

"Oh yeah! He's really on a roll now!"

"Now that that's taken care of it's time for your monsters! Strong Wind Dragon, attack his Dragon Homunculus A!"

(Lucifer: 2200)

"Now Assault Mercenary, attack his Dragon Homunculus C!"

"I don't think so… I activate the trap card Burst Breath!"

"No!"

"Yes, and now by sacrificing my Dragon Homunculus C, I can destroy every monster on your side of the field that has fewer or equal defense points than it has attack points!"

(Dragon Homunculus C: ATK: 1000 DEF: 500)

(Assault Mercenary: ATK: 1800 DEF: 300)

(Strong Wind Dragon: ATK: 2900 DEF: 1000)

Both of Jack's monsters were wiped out, leaving him defenseless.

"Err… I'll place on card face down and end my turn."

"I knew it!" said Crow "Lucifer is playing with him!"

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 3)

"And I think it's time for another new monster. I summon Dragon Homunculus D in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Attack him directly!"

"Not so fast! I activate the trap card Half or Nothing! This card gives you a choice, either you end the battle phase or your monster's attack points are cut in half! So what's it going to be?"

"Come on, what do you think?"

(ATK: 1000)

(Jack: 2000 Speed: 0)

"If you're done messing around, then it's my turn!"

(Jack Speed: 1)

"I play the speed spell Over Boost! This let's me gain four speed counters, but when my turn ends my speed counter total automatically becomes one."

(Jack Speed: 5)

"What good will it do you to increase your speed for one turn?"

"I don't plan on increasing my speed for the whole turn. Now I activate the speed spell Slow and Steady! Now I can draw a card for every speed counter I give up, so by giving up all five of my speed counters, I can draw five new cards!"

(Jack Speed: 0)

"Now I'll place this card face down, and since you have a monster on the field and I don't have any, I can summon Big Piece Golem without a tribute!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 0)

"Golem, destroy his Homunculus!"

(Lucifer: 2100)

"Only 100 points of damage? You're just as pathetic as Yusei, no I'm wrong, you're even worse than Yusei."

(Jack Speed: 1)

"What?! How did you just get a speed counter?!"

"Have you forgotten about my Over Boost? It specifically said at the end of my turn my speed counter becomes one."

"Clever."

(Lucifer Speed: 4)

"I'll summon a monster in defense mode and place one card face down."

(Jack Speed: 2)

"It's time to bring in the big guns… Yusei, this is for you… I summon Dark Resonator!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 300)

"Now I'll tune my Dark Resonator to my Big Piece Golem, in order to summon Red Dragon Archfiend!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2000)

"And that's not all! I activate the trap card Assault Mode Activate! Red Dragon Archfiend, go to Assault Mode!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 2500)

"What in the name of… What just happened?" asked Mina.

"Let's just say that Jack's Red Dragon Archfiend it bigger and stronger than ever." said Trudge.

"I knew it! I hope you're ready to buy those booster packs kid!" said Carly.

"Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault Mode, attack and destroy his monster!"

Lucifer's monster was blown away.

"I activate the trap card Cloning Machine Type-Y! With this I can bring back the Dragon Homunculus A you just destroyed simply by paying 800 life points!"

(Lucifer: 1300)

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Are you done yet? I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 5)

"Since it's my standby phase, I can activate my Dragon Homunculus A's effect, and destroy your monster!"

"Not gonna happen! I activate the trap card Assault Counter! Since I have an Assault Mode monster on the field, I can use this card to negate your monster's effect and destroy it!"

"So, I see you do have some fight in you… Well it won't help. I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Then it's your funeral!"

(Jack Speed: 3)

"Alright… This is it… I activate the trap card, Assault Slash! Since I have an Assault Mode Monster out, I can use this trap card to destroy every monster on the field!"

There was a huge explosion.

"Wait a minute, since it destroys every monster on the field, doesn't that mean his Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault Mode will got with it?" asked Luna.

"Sure my dragon may be destroyed, but now his effect activates, now I can special summon Red Dragon Archfiend from my graveyard!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2000)

"And now there's nothing in-between him and your life points!"

"Are you so sure about that?" laughed Lucifer "You should double check the field."

"WHAT?!"

Jack was surprised to see that Lucifer's monster was still there.

"Sorry Jack, but the monster I played face down was Dragon Homunculus B, and it looks like I forgot to mention that he's immune to traps."

"Err… Well let's see him dodge this! Red Dragon Archfiend, blow it away with Scorching Crimson Flare!"

"A lot of good that did you, I pay 800 life points with Cloning Machine Type-Y to bring it back!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Now it's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 6)

"And I think I'll go ahead and end this duel. I summon Kamikaze Dragon Golem in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 2000)

"Oh no! Not that!"

"Yes, that. Dragon Golem, attack the Red Dragon Archfiend!"

The Dragon Golem flew at the Red Dragon Archfiend and exploded. Both monsters were destroyed without damage calculation.

"And now due to his effect you lose 200 life points multiplied by your monster's level."

(Jack: 400 Speed: 2)

"And now Dragon Homunculus B, finish him off!"

(Jack: 0)

Jack's runner came to a grinding halt, the force of the stop sent him flying off his runner and onto the street. When he landed he heard a loud snap.

"My arm… My arm…"

When Jack looked up, Lucifer was standing right in front of him.

"Just like I thought… You're all talk and no action… A true piece of trash… you're not fit to suffer in the same way that Yusei did."

Suddenly Jack's unbroken arm felt like it was burning. Much to his horror he saw that his mark of the dragon had left him, and was instead on Lucifer's other arm, opposite Yusei's mark.

"Two down… three to go."

Lucifer just mounted his runner and took off.

"A monster…" thought Jack "That crazy doctor has created a monster…"

**(To be continued)**

**New illustration on Deviant Art**

**Lucifer in armor!**


	8. He hurt my husband!

Jack's broken arm took no time to work out, Yusei however was another story. Moments after Yusei was taken to the ER, friends and family showed up at the hospital to join the others. Everyone sat there in the waiting room for hours, all they could do was pray for good news. Akiza sat there with her face in her hands the whole time with her mother trying to comfort her. Meanwhile Carly was trying to make Jack feel better.

"¿Dónde está el cuarto de baño?"

**(Translation: Where is the bathroom?)**

"What?"

"I've been learning Spanish, just for fun. I think I'm stating to get the hang of it. Listen to this."

**(Before we continue, keep in mind that Carly has no idea what she's saying)**

"Perdone mí, pequeñas hadas. Quiero cuatro hamburguesas con queso y una pizza de piña, pero si usted permitirá que yo pida un tarro de cabezas de conejo escabechadas, puedo dar a todos ustedes recursos por la mañana."

**(Translation: Pardon me, little fairies. I want four cheeseburgers and a pineapple pizza, but if you'll allow me to order a jar of pickled rabbit heads, I can give you all AIDS in the morning.)**

Some of the others tried watching the TV, but they couldn't stay on one channel too long without upsetting someone. Crow, Leo, and some of the others wouldn't mind a certain movie that was on, but others like Luna found it offensive.

"Okay, why was the girl played by Kristen Stewart killing everyone just now?"

"It was symbolism, she was mad." said Crow.

"Mad? More like insane, she impaled five innocent bystanders on a flagpole!"

"Well she was out of ammo, and when you go crazy with an AK-47 like that you can't leave any witnesses."

"Do we even know why she went crazy like that all of a sudden?"

"Who cares? It's an action movie, it isn't about the plot."

**(For those of you who are wondering, I got that from The Simpsons Season 11 Episode 1, all except for Kristen Stewart, I just threw her in because I thought it was funny)**

After hours and hours of waiting they finally heard from the doctor.

"How is he?!" demanded Akiza.

"I think he's going to be okay. His vitals are stable, his pulse is getting steadier and stronger, he's breathing much easier, and we managed to stop the swelling in his spinal tissue."

"You've lost me." said Leo.

"Bottom line, they think he's going to live to duel another day." said Tanner.

"If the poor boy isn't traumatized after a defeat like that." said Yanagi.

Yusei was still unconscious. Since Akiza was his wife she was the only one allowed to see him. It was almost night and the storm outside hadn't let up at all.

"Is there any way his runner can be repaired?" asked Tanner.

"It was blown to a million pieces."

"How could he even think of getting back on that thing after an accident like that?!"

"Martha, it wasn't his fault. Lucifer hoisted him off the ground, tossed him around like a beach ball, threw him to the ground, and then stomped on his back with his huge metal foot. Then he blew Yusei's runner to bits to complete his humiliation."

"He already beat Yusei in a duel, so why did he beat him within an inch of his life?"

"He wants to send a message to the rest of the signers." said Blister "He wants to break their spirits by taking out the best duelists first."

"But how did he beat them in the first place? Yusei and Jack are the two best duelists we know."

"It's like Jack said, the element of surprise. He's using cards that were never released to the public because they were evidence in a disturbing murder case. I'll bet you a million dollars now that Yusei knows what to expect he'll be able to come up with a strategy to beat that freak… That is if he isn't traumatized and... What happened to his cards?"

"I saved them… But I had had to burn my hands to do it." said Rally showing them his bandaged hands.

Suddenly Trudge heard from his men.

"Sir, the suspect is heading this way!"

"Well then that road better be shut tighter than a tick's rear end!"

"Don't worry, we have the road block in place. This hotshot can't get under us, around us, or through us, we'll stop him."

The others could see what was going on from the video feed from the pursuing chopper. Lucifer was on his runner and was coming at full speed in their direction. It was clear that the roadblock was there, but either he didn't seem to notice, or he didn't seem to care.

"Trudge… he's not stopping."

"He'll stop."

Lucifer just kept going.

"He's not gonna stop!!!"

They thought there was going to be a big crash, but suddenly Lucifer's runner started glowing, then it just seemed to levitate off the ground. He went over the roadblock, and when he was passed it he came back down and just kept on going.

"Well… He didn't get under us, around us, or through us…" said the officer.

"Uh… Someone care to explain this one to me?"

"I'm just guessing here, but maybe Jack's mark enables Lucifer to fly."

"We need to get out of here!"

"Too late! He's in the building."

Akiza heard the sound of an explosion, next the door swung open and there was Lucifer.

"You! You stay away from him!!!" she said jumping in front of Yusei.

"Your husband is already broken, you can keep the pieces. I do however have three more signers to defeat, and you're next on the list."

"So be it! You'll pay for what you did to my Yusei!"

"We shall see…"

Akiza was about to activate her duel disk, but then she remembered something.

"Wait! I don't think two people like us should be dueling in a hospital."

"Very well… We'll take it outside then."

"Those two dueling each other!?!" exclaimed Leo.

"Head for the hills!" screamed Tank running off.

"I think he might have the right idea." said Tanner "This could get ugly."

"Let's duel!"

"If you don't mind, ladies first!" said Akiza "And I think I'll just summon a monster in defense mode."

"That's the grand opening move of the wife of Yusei Fudo and the infamous Black Rose? How disappointing. I summon Dragon Homunculus D in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Dragon Homunculus D, attack her face down monster!"

Akiza's monster was destroyed.

"By attacking my Wall of Ivy, you've activated its special ability! When this card is flipped face up, an Ivy Token is special summoned to your side of the field in defense mode!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"You call that a special effect? My Dragon Homunculus D has a better one. Since she destroyed a defense position monster, you take damage equal to the difference between it's defense points and my monster's defense points!"

(Akiza: 3200)

"That's nothing compared to the damage I'm about to do to you! First I'll place one card face down and summon Evil Thorn!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 300)

"Now by tributing this monster, I can deal 300 points of damage!"

(Lucifer: 3700)

"And that's not all. Now I get to special summon two more Evil Thorns from my deck!"

(2x ATK: 100 DEF: 300)

"Next I activate the spell card Mark of the Rose! Now by removing a plant type monster in my graveyard from play, I can take control of one of your monsters, and I can't think of anyone better than your Dragon Homunculus D!"

Dragon Homunculus D came over to Akiza's side of the field.

"Now, attack his Ivy Token!"

The others couldn't believe they actually had one of Lucifer's homunculi working for them.

"And now you take damage equal to the difference between it's attack point and your Ivy Token's defense points, which happens to be zero."

(Lucifer: 1700)

"And since I destroyed your Ivy Token, you lose 300 more life points!"

(Lucifer: 1400)

"And now I'll attack you directly with my two Evil Thorns!"

(Lucifer: 1200)

"That ends my turn, now your precious homunculus returns to you."

"That… was a very good move." said Yanagi.

"You're not kidding. She just took over half his life points in one turn!" said Rally.

"No wonder Yusei married her." said Nervin.

"It's my turn!" said Lucifer "And I activate the spell card Stamping Destruction! Since there is a dragon type monster on my side of the field, not only can I destroy your Mark of the Rose, I can also inflict 500 points of damage."

(Akiza: 2700)

"Next I'll summon Dragon Homunculus B in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"And he's got a very special ability. If he destroys a monster on your side of the field, provided you have another monster out after his first attack, then he can attack once again! Dragon Homunculus B, destroy her Evil Thorn!"

"I don't think so! Looks like you forgot about my face down, Negate Attack!"

True, Dragon Homunculus B was immune to trap cards; it's a shame its attacks weren't.

"Now it doesn't matter if your monster can attack a million times, because your battle phase is over!"

"In that case, I'll just place this card face down, and play Dian Keto the Cure Master!"

(Lucifer: 2200)

"Err… A thousand extra life points won't save you. I sacrifice my two Evil Thorns to summon Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 0)

"Now Amaryllis, attack his Dragon Homunculus B!"

(Lucifer: 1800)

"I activate my face down, Cloning Machine Type-X, so now I can special summon another Dragon Homunculus B from my deck."

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"But since I just destroyed a monster with Amaryllis, it is also destroyed, and you lose 800 life points!"

(Lucifer: 1000)

"I'll end my turn with a face down. And since it's my end phase, I can remove an Evil Thorn from my graveyard to special summon Amaryllis in defense mode."

(DEF: 0)

"It's my turn, I draw!"

When Lucifer drew his card he smiled. The others knew that could only mean one thing.

"Oh no…"

"I drew it… I summon Vilespawn Egg!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

"Wait a minute… He can't summon Vilespawn Dragon." said Luna "Vilespawn Egg is a level two monster, and Dragon Homunculus B and D are both level four monsters."

"Not if I play this, the equip spell Demotion!"

"What?"

"When this card is equipped to a monster, like my Dragon Homunculus B, it's level is reduced by two."

(Level: 2)

"And now that that's taken care of, I tune my Vilespawn Egg to my two Homunculi, to synchro summon Vilespawn Dragon!"

The two monsters were absorbed into the egg, then it erupted into a big blaze of fire, just like when Lucifer dueled Yusei.

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"And since I used three monsters to summon him, he gains an extra 1500 attack points this turn."

(ATK: 5000)

"And since your monster is in defense mode, I think I'll activate his other effect."

"What!?!"

"That's right everyone, there's more to my prized monster then I've let on. Once a turn, by removing a dragon type monster in my graveyard from play, my Vilespawn Dragon can use that monster's effect for the duration of the turn. I think I'll remove Dragon Homunculus D."

"Oh no! That mean's the Vilespawn Dragon will get her piercing effect!" exclaimed Leo.

"Vilespawn Dragon, destroy her Amaryllis!"

"I activate the trap card Hallowed Life Barrier! By discarding one card from my hand, I can reduce all damage I take this turn to zero. And since you just destroyed my Amaryllis you lose 800 more life points!"

(Lucifer: 200)

"In that case, I'll just place a card face down."

"And since your turn is over, Vilespawn Dragon's attack power goes back to it's original value."

(ATK: 3500)

"Now it's my turn, and I summon Twilight Rose Knight!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"When this monster is successfully summoned, I can special summon a level four or lower plant type monster from my hand, and I choose Lord Poison!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1000)

"Now I'll tune my Twilight Rose Knight to Lord Poison, to synchro summon Black Rose Dragon!"

(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1800)

"And now I activate my dragon's special ability! By removing a plant type monster in my graveyard from play, I can reduce the attack points of one of your monsters to zero! Go Black Binding Bloom!"

(ATK: 0)

"Alright! Vilespawn Dragon doesn't look so tough anymore!" said Rally.

"This is for Yusei. Black Rose Dragon, attack!"

Akiza's Black Rose Dragon fired at Vilespawn Dragon with everything it had, but when the smoke cleared there wasn't a scratch on the monster.

"What!?!"

"Guess I forgot to mention, Vilespawn Dragon has one more innate ability, and that is he can't be destroyed in battle."

"But his attack points are zero! You should still lose the rest of your life points!"

"Did you forget about the face down card I played last turn? I knew you'd use that Black Binding Bloom trick, so I put this in my deck, the trap card Spirit Barrier! Thanks to this, as long as I have a monster on the field, I can negate all battle damage I take. And since your turn is now over, my dragon gets his attack points back."

(ATK: 3500)

"It's my turn, and I activate my Pot of Greed, which as I'm sure you know lets me draw two new cards. Next I activate Dragon's Gunfire, since there's a dragon type monster on my side of the field, I can inflict 800 points of damage to your life points!"

(Akiza: 1900)

"Next I activate the spell card Foolish Burial, with this I can send the Dragon Homunculus E in my deck to the graveyard, but he won't be staying there for long, because I'm removing him from play with Vilespawn Dragon's special ability!"

"E? He hasn't used that one yet. What's it do?"

"It's simple, now my Vilespawn Dragon gains 300 attack points for every monster in my graveyard, and right now there's three.

(ATK: 4400)

"NO!"

"Vilespawn Dragon, end this!"

The Vilespawn Dragon blew Black Rose Dragon away.

(Akiza: 0)

For the first time in weeks Akiza was glad she hadn't conceived a baby yet, if she had, then that attack probably would have caused her to suffer a miscarriage. Lucifer walked up to her.

"It would be a shame to put a scar on that pretty face, so I'll just take what's mine."

Akiza's mark left her and appeared on Lucifer's body.

"Three down, two to go... and they're both within breathing distance" he said looking at the hospital.

**(To be continued)**


	9. Leo and Goliath

"Oh no, he just beat Akiza!"

"Something tells me he's not going to wait till tomorrow to try and beat us." said Crow.

"We need to get you two out of here. If he can hurl bursts of energy, fly, and whatever he can do with Akiza's mark, then I've got a feeling we don't want to see what he can do with all five."

"But where will we go and… wait… where's Leo!?!"

Lucifer was already back inside the building. Using his powers he had disabled the elevators, so the only way the others could escape would be through the stairs. As he swiftly ascended the flight he found someone blocking his path.

"Stop right there sicko!"

"Out of my way boy, or I'll throw you down the stairs."

"You can't hurt me." said Leo "Because I've got this!"

"And what's that?"

"What does it look like? That's right; I've got a piece of wood!"

"And your point is…"

"Uh…"

Leo had been in possession of the trinket for awhile now, but he still had no idea what it for. Given who gave it to him, he assumed that it had a purpose.

"Well… It doesn't matter! If you want to get to the others you'll have to go through me!"

"Very well."

Lucifer raised his hand.

"Wait! That's not what I meant! I meant you'd have to duel me!"

"And why should I do that? You're not a signer."

"Then you should have no trouble beating me, unless you're chicken."

"And what makes you think you can beat me? You're nothing, and I am just two steps away from becoming a god."

"You're just a bully, and Yusei taught me that the only way deal with bullies is to stand up to them. Besides, I won't let you hurt my sister!"

"Hmm… You're either very brave or very foolish… either way if you imagine there's even a remote chance of beating me, I'll humor you."

"Fine, but not in here, we'll take it outside."

"Leo! Leo where are you?!"

"He's outside."

"Akiza! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but it looks like Leo's playing hero."

"What!?! You don't mean… We have to stop him!"

"No! That's what Lucifer wants… We need to get you and Crow out of here so he can't take your marks."

"I'm not going anywhere! That's my brother down there!"

From above, the ones that weren't trying to stop Luna could see Leo and Lucifer down on the ground.

"I think he's doomed." said Blitz.

"That's putting it mildly." said Jack "It's going to be slaughter."

Leo made his way to one end of the vacant parking lot while Lucifer went towards the other, suddenly…

PLOOUUUUPP

"EEEWWWW!!!" said Lucifer as he started dragging his metal foot against the ground "There's a really big dog around here."

"Bad guy steps in poop. Classic element of physical comedy." said Crow "Now comes the part where we all throw our heads back and laugh. Ready?"

"Ready! HA-AH-AH-HA-AH!!!"

"Enough of this! Let's get this game on!"

"Fine with me!"

"Let's duel!"

"Since you're at a disadvantage in so many ways, I'll let you make the first move."

"Whatever, I play the field spell Morphtronic Map, next I'll place two cards face down, and summon Morphtronic Celfon in attack mode!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 100)

"When Morphtronic Celfon is in attack mode, I can randomly dial a number once per turn, then I take a look at that many cards from the top of my deck, and if there are any Morphtronic monsters that are level four or lower, I can summon one of them."

"Go ahead and do it if you think it'll help."

"Oh it will… It's a three, so I get to look at the top three cards of my deck… I summon Morphtronic Magnen!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"Oh, two weak monsters, whatever will I do? Oh I know, I'll summon Dragon Homunculus B!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"As I'm sure you know by now, if you have another monster on the field after his first attack, then he can attack again. Now Dragon Homunculus B, destroy his Morphtronic Celfon!"

"I don't think so! I activate the Morphtronic Bind trap card!"

Suddenly a cage of energy surrounded Leo's monsters. Dragon Homunculus B charged right into it and was sent flying back to Lucifer's side of the field.

"What!?!"

"As long as I have at least one Morphtronic monster on the field, all level four or higher monsters you summon can't attack or change their battle positions!"

"That… was a very good move." said Akiza.

"She's right. We've watched Lucifer duel three times already, and almost all of his monsters are level four or higher."

"I call it luck." said Jack.

"It's my turn! And I activate my other face down card, Morphtronic Monitron. Next I'll summon another Morphtronic Magnen!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"And thanks to the effect of my Monitron card, I can switch it to defense mode."

(DEF: 800)

"And I'll switch my other Magnen to defense mode as well."

(DEF: 800)

"And since I just switched the position of two of my monsters, I can place a Morph Counter on my Morphtronic Map field spell, and all my monsters gain 300 attack points for each Morph Counter on it!"

(Celfon: 700 2x Magnen: 1400)

"Now I'll activate Celfon's special effect, it's a six, so I get to look at the top six cards of my deck… I summon Morphtronic Datatron!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 600)

"And I'll use my Morphtronic Monitron trap to switch him to defense mode, that way my field spell get's another Morph Counter, and that means all my monsters gain 300 more attack points."

(Celfon: 1000 2x Magnen: 1700 Datatron: 2100)

"Now I'll activate Datatron's effect. Since he's in defense mode, I can inflict 300 points of damage to your life points!"

(Lucifer: 3700)

Lucifer was laughing.

"Congratulations boy, you've managed to score the first blood. But first blood doesn't matter when you're dueling a person like me. Your monsters might be protected behind that trap card of yours, but that problem is easily remedied. I play the spell card Stamping Destruction! Since I have a dragon monster on the field, not only is your trap card destroyed, but you also lose 500 life points."

(Leo: 3500)

"Now that that's taken care of, I summon Dragon Homunculus D!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Homunculus, attack his Datatron!"

Dragon Homunculus D charged at Leo's monster, but before she could reach it there was a wall of energy blocking her path.

"What!?! I just destroyed your Bind card!"

"You did, but you forgot about the two defense position Morphtronic Magnens I had on the field. When there's one Morphtronic Magnen on the field in defense mode you can't attack any other monster, but I have two on the field, so you can't attack either of them!"

"Err… A simple barrier strategy won't stop me… I'll end my turn with a face down."

"He… He's actually holding his own?" asked Carly.

"That's not possible!"

"No it isn't." said Akiza "Leo's watched Lucifer duel three times, so he's had time to adapt his deck to his strategy. He probably has as good a chance as any of us."

"It's my turn! I'll place a card face down and activate Morphtronic Celfon's effect… It's a five, so I get to look at the top five cards of my deck… I summon Morphtronic Boarden in attack mode!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 1800)

"And he gets a 900 attack point boost thanks to my Morphtronic Map!"

(ATK: 1400)

"Now I'll switch both my Morphtronic Magnens and my Datatron to attack mode, and in doing so I get to place three more Morph Counters on my Morphtronic Map, so all my monsters gain 900 more attack points!"

(Celfon: 1900 2x Magnen: 2300 Datatron: 3000 Boarden: 2300)

"And since Morphtronic Boarden is in attack mode, all my Morphtronic monsters get to attack you directly!"

"What!?!"

"All of them!?!" exclaimed Rally.

"That means the duel's over!"

"Morphtronics, attack!"

"I don't think so, I activate the trap card Negate Attack!"

All Leo's monsters where stopped in their tracks.

"Did you honestly think it would be that easy to beat me?"

"No, but it was worth a shot. Since my monsters can't attack now, I'll activate Datatron's effect! By sacrificing a monster like my Morphtronic Boarden, I can inflict 600 points of damage!"

(Lucifer: 3100)

"He's made a critical mistake by switching all his monsters into attack mode." thought Lucifer "And no he's going to pay for it."

Lucifer drew his card.

"I play another Stamping Destruction, and this time I'll destroy your Morphtronic Map along with 500 of your life points!"

(Leo: 3000)

"And with that card no longer in play, you're the attack points of all your monsters drop to their original values!"

(Celfon: 100 2x Magnen: 800 Datatron: 1200)

"That's not all that happens. When Morphtronic Map is destroyed, I can special summon a Morphtronic monster from my graveyard, namely my Morphtronic Boarden!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 1800)

"As if it will matter. Dragon Homunculus B and D, attack!"

"Looks like you've forgotten about my face down, Zero Gravity! This trap card changes the battle positions of all monsters on the field!"

Since every monster on the field was in attack mode, they were all forced into defense mode, and obviously monsters in defense position, with very few exceptions, can do nothing during the battle phase. Even if they could Leo's Magnens were in defense mode again, so the barrier was in place.

"Err… I may have underestimated this boy."

"It's my turn! First I'll place a card face down and switch Datatron back to attack mode!"

(ATK: 1200)

"And since Datatron is in attack mode, I can use his special effect to tribute Boarden and inflict 600 points of damage!"

(Lucifer: 2500)

"Until now I've just been toying with you boy. First I'll switch both my monsters back into attack mode. Next I'll place two cards face down on the field, and activate the spell card Dragon's Gunfire! Since I have a dragon type monster on the field, I can use this spell card to destroy one monster you have out that has 800 defense points or less, and I think one of your Magnens will fit the bill just fine!"

"I don't think so, I counter with Morphtronic Forcefield! This card negates the activation of one spell or trap card that would destroy one of my Morphtronic monsters, and also lets me take a Morphtronic monster from my deck and add it to my hand."

"Err… I'm becoming annoyed."

"It's my turn, and I'll activate Celfon's effect, now he dials… it's a four… I summon Morphtronic Magnen Bar!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 100)

"And now I'll sacrifice him with Datatron's effect, dealing you another 600 points of damage!"

(Lucifer: 1900)

"And I'll end my turn with a face down."

"Lucifer, quit playing around and finish the boy off."

"What do think I'm trying to do?"

Lucifer drew his card.

"First I activate my face down trap, Burst Breath! By tributing my Dragon Homunculus D, I can destroy every monster on the field that has fewer defense points than her attack points!"

Since none of the monsters on the field had 2000 defense points they were all destroyed.

"Now I activate my face down Cloning Machine Type-X, with this I can special summon another Dragon Homunculus B from my deck."

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Next I'll summon my Dragon Homunculus E in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1500)

"And don't forget, he gains 300 extra attack points for every dragon type monster my graveyard!"

(ATK: 2300)

"Now I activate the spell card Emergency Card Stash! Since there are no other cards in my hand, I can now draw six cards from my deck. Now I activate Hand Destruction, which forces us both to discard two cards from our hands, and then draw two new cards."

Lucifer smiled, Leo knew that could only mean one thing.

"I activate the spell card Demotion, and with it I can reduce the level of my Dragon Homunculus B."

(Level: 2)

"Next I play Double Summon, which enables me to summon my Vilespawn Egg!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

"Now I'll tune my Vilespawn Egg to my two Homunculi in order to synchro summon Vilespawn Dragon!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"You think that dragon scares me?!" said Leo.

"He will when he gains 500 attack points for every monster I used to summon him."

(ATK: 5000)

"Vilespawn Dragon, attack him directly!"

The Vilespawn Dragon unleashed its fierce attack.

"LEO! NO!!!"

Lucifer was laughing, but when the smoke cleared Leo still had life points left.

(Leo: 500)

"What!?!"

"Sorry, but you forgot about my face down card, Shrink! This quick-play spell card cut your monster's attack points in half!"

"Err… You've just delayed the inevitable…"

"Okay… It's the bottom of the 9th, two out, and I'm down by like three runs." thought Leo "I need to pull a winner out of my hat right now or I'm finished."

Leo drew his card.

"Oh my gosh… I might actually win this! I summon Morphtronic Scopen!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 1400)

"Now I'll activate his special ability, which let's me summon a level four Morphtronic monster from my hand, and I choose Videon!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000)

"And now I'll tune Scopen to Videon in order to synchro summon Power Tool Dragon!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 2500)

"Now I'll equip him with Double Tool C&D, now not only does he gain 1000 attack points during my turn, but if he attacks one of your monsters, then its effects are negated!"

(ATK: 3300)

"Looks like you can't add. Vilespawn Dragon still has more attack points."

"Not when I play this! I activate the equip spell Megamorph!"

"WHAT!?!"

"And since you have more life points than me, my Power Tool Dragon's original attack points are doubled!"

(ATK: 5600)

"Wait a minute. Five thousand six hundred minus three thousand five hundred… Oh my god, that's enough!" said Carly.

"THIS ENDS NOW!!!" said Leo "Power Tool Dragon, ATTACK!!!"

Power Tool Dragon flew at the Vilespawn Dragon and attacked, the resulting explosion covered the entire area.

**(COULD THIS BE IT!?!)**

**To be continued**

**BWAH-AH-HA-HA I am the greatest story writer ever! Beware my evil cliffhangers!**

**Don't you just hate me?**


	10. A New Bag of Tricks

When the smoke cleared Power Tool Dragon was standing strong, but the Vilespawn Dragon was nowhere to be seen.

"I DID IT! I DID IT!!!" exclaimed Leo while jumping up and down.

The others were just looking at the scene with their jaws wide open.

"Leo… just destroyed the Vilespawn Dragon…" said Trudge

"Now I've seen everything."

"That's my brother down there." said Luna.

Just then Rally noticed something odd.

"Uh… guys… why didn't Lucifer's life points go to 0?"

(Lucifer: 1900)

Lucifer was on his knees, but they noticed that he had activated some kind of spell card. The other punched it up to see what had happened.

"When you have the spell card Miracle Barrier in your graveyard, you can remove it from play to draw two cards from your deck and reduce any damage you take that turn to 0."

Lucifer rose to his feet. He was wearing his helmet, so Leo couldn't see how mad he looked.

"You destroyed the dragon… YOU DESTROYED THE VILESPAWN DRAGON!!! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!"

Leo wasn't intimidated by this threat. He had taken out the maniac's best card, the rest would be cake.

"It's my turn! And I summon Dragon Homunculus C in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 500)

"What does that one do again?"

"It doesn't matter, since Lucifer still has more life points than Leo, Megamorph doubles the Power Tool Dragon's attack points."

(ATK: 4600)

"You should all know by now that attack points aren't everything, especially when you're dueling one who is about to become a god! Dragon Homunculus C, attack him directly!"

"What!?!"

The Dragon Homunculus C slithered like snake under Power Tool Dragon and bit Leo.

(Leo: 0)

**(Kinda anticlimactic, isn't it?) **

Lucifer may have won the duel, but he still looked really angry.

"Not even a signer, but a mere boy is able to destroy the great Vilespawn Dragon? NO ONE DISRESPECTS THE DRAGON AND LIVES!!!"

Lucifer stretched out his arms, suddenly what appeared to be a huge blast of lightening erupted out of his hands and struck Leo.

"!!!"

"LEO! NO!!!"

None of the others could stop Luna from going.

"I think we just figured out what power Akiza's mark gave him."

"LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!"

Lucifer considered his options for a moment, then he stopped and let Leo fall to the earth.

"LEO! Please tell me you're alright!"

There was smoke emanating from Leo's body.

"Cough… did… did anyone catch the… number on that… bus? Cough… I've never felt anything so… so… so… painful in my life… I… I… feel… like I… cough… like I was… being burned alive… If… if… if no one minds… I'd like to take a… a… a… quick nap."

"LEO!!!"

"Don't worry about your pathetic brother, it's time that you and I duel signer!"

"LUNA!!!"

"The others tried to stop her, when suddenly it felt like they hit an invisible wall."

"What the heck is this?" asked Trudge.

"It's… some kind of wall of telekinetic energy." said Akiza "Lucifer doesn't want us to interfere."

"Don't worry about me! Just take care of Leo!"

"Err… She's right, he's in pretty bad shape. We need to get him back inside."

Luna turned to face Lucifer.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you've done to my brother!"

"We'll see…"

"Let's duel!"

"Do you think she stands a chance?" asked Crow.

"Absolutely not." said Jack.

"But if Leo can come that close to defeating him, who's to say she can't?"

"That's just how Lucifer duels…" said Akiza "Yusei, Jack, and I all almost had him… but when we think we've dealt the killing blow he comes back to deliver it himself."

"You know Luna, I really thank you…"

"For what?"

"It is because of you that I was able to find the Vilespawn Dragon card… I was created with the DNA from all five of you signers… I inherited Akiza's telekinetic powers and your ability to talk to spirits… That's right… I can hear them too… When I killed my creator and let the darkness in my soul take over I could hear the Vilespawn Dragon calling out to me from the Impound Center… I rescued him and he helped me discover my power… and now all because of your abilities I'm only two steps away from becoming a god!"

"Don't listen to him Luna… None of this is your fault."

"Is your precious Ancient Fairy Dragon whispering words of encouragement to you? To bad it won't help… And since you're at such a disadvantage I'll let you make the first move…"

"Err… Fine with me!"

Luna looked over the cards in her hand. She had to admit she was scared, but she was even angrier at Lucifer for what he had to Leo and her friends.

"I'll place one card face down and activate the continuous spell card Spring of Rebirth. And I'll end my turn by summoning Kuribon in attack mode!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 200)

Sure Luna's deck didn't look like much at first glance, but over the years Yusei and Akiza had helped her learn a few new tricks.

"I see… You think what helped you defeat your brother when he was possessed by Drakonadon is going to help you defeat me… Yes Luna… I know all about that. And I tell you that your strategy isn't going to work. First I'll place this card face down, and summon Dragon Homunculus A in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Next I activate Stamping Destruction! Since I have a dragon type monster in play I can use this spell card to destroy one spell or trap on your side of the field!"

Dragon Homunculus A flew over and stomped on Luna's card, shattering it to pieces.

"No! My Bad Reaction to Simochi!"

"It's gone, and now you lose 500 life points."

(Luna: 3500)

"Dragon Homunculus A, attack Kuribon!"

The attack was successful, but due to Kuribon's effect it was returned to Luna's hand instead of being destroyed.

"Not good. Now Lucifer gains life points equal to his monster's attack points." said Jack.

(Lucifer: 6000)

"But since Kuribon was returned to my hand, Spring of Rebirth gives me a life point boost as well!"

(Luna: 4000)

"Oh, you gained back the 500 points I took from you, I'm so afraid."

"This is not gonna end well." said Rally.

"Okay…" thought Luna "I got off to a rocky start, but it's like Yusei says, the duel isn't over until one of us loses all our life points… I'll place a card face down and summon Sunlight Unicorn!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Next I activate Sunlight Unicorn's special ability! Now if the card at the top of my deck is an equip spell, then I get to add it to my hand… And it looks like its Horn of the Unicorn, which I'll now equip to my Sunlight Unicorn!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 1700)

"Sunlight Unicorn, attack his Homunculus!"

(Lucifer: 5500)

'

"You should know by now it isn't that easy to get rid of my monsters. I activate Cloning Machine Type-X to special summon another Dragon Homunculus A from my deck!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Well… in that case… I'll end my turn with a face down."

"It's my turn! And I think I'll activate Dragon Homunculus A's effect. Since he's the only monster on my field, I can now destroy one monster on yours!"

Sunlight Unicorn was vaporized from the monster's blast.

"Next I'll summon Dragon Homunculus B in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Homunculus A, attack Luna directly!"

"Not so fast, I activate the trap card Dimensional Prison! This removes your attacking monster from play!"

Just like that Dragon Homunculus A vanished into thin air.

"Oh great… Since she removed him from play, I can't use my Cloning Machine to bring him back. They're all starting to adapt to my playing strategy… No matter, once I've dispatched little Luna, I'll just need to beat the bird brain. Good thing I took out their best players first. Dragon Homunculus B, attack her directly!"

(Luna: 2200)

"I activate the trap card Fairy Dust! From now on, I can draw a card from my deck for every 500 life points I lose, and since you just caused me to lose 1800 life points, I get to draw three new cards!"

"Go ahead and draw if you think it will help."

"Okay… Lucifer has a huge lead… Time to see if that little trick Akiza taught me can work. I'll place a card face down and summon Nurse Reficule the Fallen One!"

(ATK: 1400 DEF: 600)

"Next I activate the field spell Ancient Forest! From now on if a monster attacks, it's automatically destroyed at the end of the damage step!"

"Oh… Like that'll stop me… It' my turn!"

"Which means I can activate this trap, Gift Card! Normally this card would cause you to gain 3000 life points, but thanks to Nurse Reficule the Fallen One, you lose 3000 life points instead!"

(Lucifer: 2500)

"Thatta girl!"

"Impressive…" said Lucifer "That Gift Card combo is a nice trick, but don't tell me that's all you've got.

"Just make your move!"

"Very well… Since I can't attack without destroying my own monster, I think I'll just play the spell Hand Destruction, this forces us both to discard two cards from our hands, and then we both draw two cards from our decks."

"It's my turn! And I activate the spell card Rain of Mercy! Normally this would cause us both to gain 1000 life points, but thanks to Nurse Reficule the Fallen One's effect I'll be the only one who gains life points!"

(Luna: 3200)

(Lucifer: 1500)

"In the past two turns Lucifer has lost a total of 4000 life points, and yet he doesn't even seem to care!"

"Crow, you better get outta here while you still can. I don't think Luna can last much longer."

"Hmm… She's right about that… Already little Luna is walking deep into my trap. I'll just place this card face down and end my turn."

"It's my turn then, and I summon Sunny Pixie!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 400)

"Next I activate Double Summon, now I can summon Dream Sprite!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 200)

"Now I'll tune my Sunny Pixie to my Dream Sprite and Nurse Reficule the Fallen One, in order to synchro summon Ancient Fairy Dragon!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 3000)

"And since I used Sunny Pixie to synchro summon a light attribute monster, I gain 1000 life points!"

(Luna: 4200)

"Hmm… I pass there's nothing I can do."

"It's my turn again, and I summon Regulus in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1000)

"Next I activate Ancient Fairy Dragon's effect, by destroying my own Ancient Forest I can gains 1000 life points and bring another field spell to my hand!"

(Luna: 5200)

"Now I'll activate Regulus' effect and bring the Ancient Forest I just destroyed back into may deck. Now Ancient Fairy Dragon, attack his Homunculus B!"

Lucifer's monster was destroyed, but his life points didn't drop.

"What!?!"

"Sorry but it seems you forgot about my duel with Akiza. I activate the trap card Spirit Barrier! From now on I don't take any battle damage as long as I have a monster on my field, and now I'll activate the effect of my Cloning Machine to special summon another Dragon Homunculus B from my deck."

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Err… Well in that case, I'll just end my turn by playing my second Ancient Forest."

"It's my turn, and I'll summon Dragon Homunculus D in attack mode."

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"I'll end my turn by placing two cards face down."

"It's my turn, and I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master, and gain 1000 life points!"

(Luna: 6200)

"Next I activate Ancient Fairy Dragon's effect, by destroying my Ancient Forest I can gain 1000 life points and take another from my deck. And thanks to Regulus I can place the Ancient Forest I just destroyed back in my deck."

(Luna: 7200)

"Now I'll have Ancient Fairy Dragon attack your Dragon Homunculus B!"

The Dragon Homunculus B was destroyed, but since Lucifer still had Spirit Barrier in play he didn't lose any life points. And with Cloning Machine Type-X he special summoned another Dragon Homunculus B from his deck.

"That's the third and final Dragon Homunculus B he has. I'll end my turn with Ancient Forest!"

Once again Luna's monsters were protected by the sanctuary.

"Every turn I can just destroy Ancient Forest to gain 1000 life points, and since I have Regulus in play I can keep using it again at the end of my turn. In the meantime I can have Ancient Fairy Dragon attack his monsters."

"It's my turn… And I think I'll go ahead and end this duel. I activate my face down Trap Hacker!"

"What!?!"

"This card lets me copy the effects of one of the trap cards in your graveyard, and I choose Gift Card!"

(Luna: 10200)

"Confused? I knew you would try to increase your life points throughout this duel, so I added this next card to my deck to even the odds a little. I activate Life Equalizer!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes, since the difference between our life points is more than 8000, now both our life points become 3000!"

(Lucifer: 3000)

(Luna: 3000)

"Now I'll activate Stamping Destruction to destroy your precious Ancient Forest and deal 500 points of damage!"

(Luna: 2500)

"Now I play the equip spell Demotion, this reduces Dragon Homunculus to a level 2 monster. Next I'll play Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards. Now I'll summon my Vilespawn Egg!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

"You know what happens next. I tune my homunculi to my Vilespawn Egg in order to synchro summon Vilespawn Dragon!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"Since I used three monsters to summon him he gains 1500 attack points."

(ATK: 5000)

"Vilespawn Dragon, ATTACK!!!"

"Ancient Fairy Dragon! NO!!!"

Ancient Fairy Dragon was blown away.

(Luna: 0)

"It's over… I've won."

Suddenly Lucifer started glowing, Luna's mark of the dragon had appeared on him.

"And then there was one…"

**(To be continued)**


	11. The Last Line of Defense

Luna was on the ground. She was terrified of what Lucifer would do to her, then much to everyone's surprise, the maniac ripped one of his own robotic arms off!

"WHAT THE ****!?!" exclaimed Trudge.

Lucifer started glowing, then right in front of everyone's eyes, another arm shot out of his vacant elbow, only unlike its predecessor this one was organic.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!"

Lucifer did the same with his other arm, and then dispatched his mechanical legs.

"Ah… That's so much better… Don't worry little Luna… I have bigger fish to fry, or in this case a bird to pluck and roast. I can sense that he's already on the move… but that's okay… I enjoy a good game of cat and mouse."

Lucifer pressed a button on his belt. In a matter of moments his runner appeared out of nowhere, and he was off.

"Luna! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine… How's my brother?"

"Leo's going to fine."

"… Crow's our only hope now…"

"Oh yeah… We're done for." said Jack.

"Come on ol' Blackbird, don't fail me now."

While Crow was racing through the city streets Security was setting up a perimeter behind him, anything to try and keep Lucifer from reaching his goal. They had been given permission to shoot to kill.

"I could just fly over them, but it would be a lot more fun to blast them."

Lucifer pressed a button on the control panel, suddenly a few compartments opened up on his runner.

"Rockets away!"

Six rockets flew from Lucifer's runner and blasted the Security officers.

"Darn, he's really ahead of me. Of coarse… that's what nitros are for."

Lucifer pressed another button and his runner zipped off into the night pursuing his quarry.

"Crow! He's coming up fast behind you!!!"

Too late, Lucifer has already caught up to him before they could finish that sentence.

"I spy with my little eye, a signer who thinks he got away. Well tough luck."

"Duel mode engaged… overriding enemy's duel runner."

"Err… Well it looks like the only thing standing between this loony and unlimited power is me… just the way I like it." said Crow.

"Let's duel!"

"The first turn is mine!"

(Lucifer Speed: 1)

"I summon Dragon Homunculus D in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Next I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

"I have a pretty good idea what those cards are." thought Crow "And I have just the card in my hand to deal with them. It's my turn!"

(Crow Speed: 1)

"I summon Blackwing – Fane the Steel Chain!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 800)

"And since there's a Blackwing on my field, I can now special summon Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 400)

"But that's not all, I can also special summon Blackwing – Bora the Spear!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 800)

"And since there are now three Blackwings on my field, I can activate from my hand, Delta Crow – Anti Reverse, and this card destroys every face down spell and trap card you have out!"

Both Lucifer's face downs were destroyed, but the lunatic was laughing.

"Sorry bird brain, but you just walked right into a trap!"

(Crow: 2000 Speed: 0)

"What the!?! What just happened to my life points!?!"

"I knew you'd use that Anti Reverse card, so I placed two copies of a very special trap card in my deck to use as bait."

The card's image came up on Crow's screen.

"When the face down trap card Kozaky's Self-Destruct Button is destroyed, the player who destroyed it receives 1000 points of damage."

"Oh great… The duel just started, and I've already lost half my life points… Come on Crow focus… Using Fane's effect, it can now attack you directly!"

(Lucifer: 3500)

"Now I'll use Gale's effect, which cuts your Dragon Homunculus D's attack and defense points in half!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 900)

"Now I'll attack your monster with Bora, and he has a piecing effect!"

(Lucifer: 2800)

"Now I'll attack you directly with Blackwing - Gale!"

(Lucifer: 1400 Speed: 0)

"Alright I'm still in this…"

"If you think you can win this fight, you have your head in the clouds more than I thought. It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 1)

"I'll place two cards face down, and summon Dragon Homunculus B!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Now my monster, attack his Blackwing – Fane!"

(Crow: 800)

"And don't forget his special effect… Now he can attack again, destroy his Blackwing – Gale!"

(Crow: 200)

"Err… You bite this guy he bites right back… It's my turn!"

(Crow Speed: 1)

"I'll place a card face down, and since there's a monster on my side of the field, I can summon Blackwing – Elphin the Raven without a tribute!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 1200)

"Now Elphin, destroy his Homunculus!"

"A lot of good that move will do you; I activate the trap cards Cloning Machine Type-X and Spirit Barrier! Now not only can I prevent myself from losing any life points, but I can special summon another Homunculus B from my deck!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"Now it's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 2)

"And that means I can activate my trap card!" said Crow "I activate Altar for a Tribute! By sacrificing Bora, I can gain life points equal to his attack points!"

(Crow: 1900)

"A lot of good that move will do you… I pass."

"Then it's my turn!"

(Crow Speed: 2)

"I'll place three cards face down, and I'll have Elphin attack again!"

"With the same result, I take no damage, and another Homunculus B takes its place."

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)

"That's the third and final Homunculus B in his deck." thought Crow "And even if he summons another monster, I have just the cards out to prevent him from resurrecting it."

"It's my turn!"

(Lucifer Speed: 3)

"I'll place a card face down and summon Dragon Homunculus E in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1500)

"Now he gains 300 attack points for every dragon in my graveyard!"

(ATK: 2600)

"Attack and destroy his monster!"

"Not so fast, I activate Mirror Force, which means all the monsters you have out in attack mode are destroyed!"

"Then I'll just bring my Dragon Homunculus E back with…"

"Don't think so! Now I activate Trap Stun! This negates the effects of all other traps cards on the field for the duration of this turn."

"Then I guess it's your turn."

"That's right, and now I'm going to beat you!"

(Crow Speed: 3)

"I summon Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 0)

"And thanks to his effect I can summon Blackwing monster from my graveyard in defense mode, and I choose Gale the Whirlwind!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 400)

"Next I activate Level Returner, which I'll use to reduce Blizzard's level to 1. Next I'll tune Blizzard to Elphin, in order to synchro summon Blackwing Armor Master!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 1500)

"Attack him directly and finish him off!"

"I think not. I activate the trap card Negate Attack!"

"No… I was one attack away from winning!"

"You've watched me duel five times. You didn't really think it was going to be that easy, did you? Now I think I'll go ahead and end this duel for real."

(Lucifer Speed: 4)

"I activate the speed spell Monster Rush! Now for every speed counter I give up, I can look at one card at the top of my deck, and if it's a level four or lower monster then I can summon it. I think I'll give up three speed counters."

(Lucifer: Speed: 1)

"What do you know… Three monsters… I summon Dragon Homunculus A, D, and Vilespawn Egg!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

"Now I activate another speed spell, Thin and Fast! This lets me reduce the level of one of the monsters on my field by two, I choose Dragon Homunculus D!"

"Now I tune my Vilespawn Egg to my two Homunculi to synchro summon Vilespawn Dragon!"

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"You know the drill, now he gains 500 attack points for every monster I used to summon him."

(ATK: 5000)

"Now I'll remove my Dragon Homunculus D from play so my Vilespawn Dragon can gain her piercing effect. Now my monster, attack his Blackwing Gale and end this!"

"No!!!"

(Crow: 0)

**(Insert dramatic background music)**

Crow fell off his runner and hit the ground. But Lucifer didn't even notice, he was far too focused on Crow's mark of the tail that had appeared on his body. Sure this the humblest mark would grant him immortality, but that was nothing compared to what would happen next. At that moment lightening began to split the night sky, thunder shook the earth and the wind roared.

"I don't like the looks of this…" said Akiza.

"Oh no…"

At that moment the Crimson Dragon appeared in the sky above, but this time was different, this time it was in pain, and its mournful cry could be heard all across New Domino City and all the way to the Satellite. As it writhed in agony it turned purple.

"Yes…" said Lucifer "Come to me… Come to me! COME TO ME!!!"

The Crimson dragon fell from the sky and appeared to be sucked into Lucifer's body. For a few minutes Lucifer screamed as if he were in pain, but then his screams turned into laughter. His entire body radiated with energy.

"Yes… Yes! YES!!! I HAVE BECOME WHAT NO OTHER CAN HOPE TO ACHIEVE!!! I AM THE GREAT DESTROYER, THE TAKER OF LIFE!!! I AM A GOD!!!

**(To be continued)**


	12. Daddy's Advice

For a few minutes Lucifer just stood there taking it all in. He had defeated the five signers. He had ascended to a level that no human being had ever reached before. The power of the Crimson Dragon was coursing through his veins. He could destroy the entire world if he felt like it, but he decided not to. Without this world what would he be god of? Besides, if he just went ahead and killed everyone there would be no one to duel.

"But I think I've had enough of that for one day… Hmm… With my new status I require neither sleep nor sustenance. So what should I do in the meantime?"

"You are a god now Lucifer." said the spirit of the Vilespawn Dragon "And every god needs a temple."

"Ah yes… not just a place for dwelling in, but a terrifying symbol of my power, something to remind these pathetic mortals who their lord and master is… I'll get started right away."

Crow's runner had been damaged when he lost the duel. As a result he had to walk it all the way back to the hospital.

"I'm assuming the whole Crimson Dragon turning purple and falling out of the sky thing means you have bad news." said Trudge.

"I tried."

"Well Crow there is no try, there's do and there's ****** royal, and you're ****** royal!" said Jack.

"He didn't beat me that bad."

"So that's it? We're all gonna die?" asked Tank.

"Well… the city's been quiet… What happened after Lucifer beat you?"

"He absorbed the Crimson Dragon and just rode off."

"Well let's see… If I was a mutant clone, just defeated the five signers, and absorbed the Crimson Dragon, where would I go and what would I do?"

"Wait! What's that?!"

Rally had been looking out the window. The others rushed over to see what was happening. Far off in the distance they could see what appeared to be a huge palace erupting out of the ocean on the other side of the Daedalus Bridge. The building had huge towers erupting out of its foundation that stretched so high into the sky that they couldn't see the top. The towers were circled by huge helix spirals that went from top to bottom, except for the one in the center which had huge vertical drop instead.

"Was that always there?" asked Nervin.

After a few minutes of looking at the towering building they rushed to see if there was anything about it on the news.

"We're live from the Daedalus Bridge. Moments ago a giant building just erupted out the water. Compounding this anomaly was the appearance of a giant dragon in the sky. Witnesses believed it to be the same dragon that appeared when Yusei Fudo dueled Jack Atlas at the Fortune Cup some years ago. Wait… something's happening!"

At that moment a stone bridge rose out of the water to connect the temple to the Daedalus. Lucifer emerged out of the door at the foot of the central tower dressed in his armor and floated over to the place where the news team was watching. His body was radiating with power and a purple version of the mark of the Crimson Dragon's seal was visible upon his chest plate.

"Greetings everyone… I am Lucifer, the one that you saw defeat Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, and the other legendary signers on live TV these past few nights. For those of you who don't already know this I started out as a mere clone created by the late Dr. Keith Wilmut with the DNA of the five signers and his son who perished in an unfortunate car accident. But by defeating the five signers I've become what no other human can ever achieve… I've become a god!"

"He really knows how to charm his audience, doesn't he." said Yanagi.

"Now in celebration of my ascension to godhood, I have built the magnificent temple you see behind me. As of right now it will be opened to any duelist who thinks he or she has what it takes to challenge me. I will be expecting at least one duelist to challenge me a day, if not… well, let's just say it won't be pretty. Any duelist can challenge me, and I mean anyone. I don't care if you're a three year old or a dueling monkey; all you need to challenge me is the guts to show up. Now I hope I haven't scared you from visiting, I'll be waiting at the top."

Without saying another word Lucifer rose up and disappeared into the sky.

"It won't be pretty? I'm not sure I want to know what he means by that." said Blitz.

"He's built a huge building and intends to celebrate his ascension to "godhood" by forcing people to duel him? What does he hope to gain from it?" asked Martha.

"Simple. He's insane." said Trudge.

"He's a thrill seeker." said Jack "He beat all of us, so now he wants every yahoo and his sister who thinks they can take him to try."

"Can you beat him?"

"I'm not sure Carly. He's beaten all of us already, even though we know what half the cards in his deck are; he always finds a way to surprise us."

"You have to try." said Mina "If no one else can beat him, I don't imagine it will be long before he gets bored and starts demanding a real challenge."

"Come on Yusei…" thought Akiza "We need you… I need you."

"I've failed… They were all counting on me… and I let everyone down…"

Since his defeat Yusei hadn't been able to move. He didn't remember much, all he could recollect was how badly he had been beaten. He was plagued by nightmares of his friends being crushed by Lucifer; he also saw the Crimson Dragon moaning in pain. All the while Lucifer was laughing in his face.

"I'm sorry… Rally… Jack… Luna… Leo… Crow… Akiza… I'm so sorry."

Suddenly all the painful imagines disappeared and Yusei heard a voice.

"Yusei…"

"Huh?"

"Yusei…"

"Father?... Father is that you?!"

The next moment Yusei saw his father standing above him.

"Yusei, my son… I know you've been through a lot… but I can tell this isn't just because you lost a duel… You're afraid… but not of Lucifer…"

Yusei was never afraid of Lucifer, he was only afraid for the safety of his friends and his wife.

"Your friends are fine Yusei, but I know that's not the only thing that is bothering you… Akiza wants to start a family with you, and you're afraid to become a parent. That fear is what's holding you back."

Earlier Yusei's back had felt like it was on fire, now the pain had dulled a little, but he still couldn't move a muscle. He was also groggy and could barely respond to his father.

"I… I… I was raised in an… orphanage… and grew up… on… on the… streets… What do I… know… about… families? I'll ne…. ne… never be a good… father…"

"My son, what you're feeling is very common. Many people don't know much about raising a family when the time comes. I myself wasn't sure if I was ready when your mother had you… I guess I didn't have to worry much about that."

Yusei would have laughed, but the morphine in his system left him too out of it to do so.

"But one thing I do know Yusei, a real father wouldn't be setting a good example if he just laid down and died."

"I'm not lying down and… dying… dad… I… I'm just… I'm…"

"You're afraid… Yusei I was afraid of what it would be like to be a parent too… But as you can tell… Life is just too short… you can't live in fear."

"What… about… you and the… Ener-D Reactor?"

"Yusei, you starting a family is hardly as serious as something that could blow up the city. Akiza's counting on you; she doesn't want to have anyone's babies except yours. You don't want to disappoint her, do you?"

"Akiza… no… never… but…"

"Yusei, from what your mother and I have seen, we both think you'd make a great father."

"From what you've… seen? But…"

"We may be dead as a can of spam Yusei, and you may not always be able to see us, but we're always watching… Now wake up."

"Guys! I think he's waking up!"

With his father's words hitting hard, Yusei started to find the strength to open his eyes. At first all he could see was a bright light and hear muffled voices.

"Yusei!"

"Shh! Give him some room to breathe!"

Slowly Yusei's sight came back to him. His room was full of "get well soon" cards and presents from his fans, but he was more focused on his friends and Akiza's loving eyes. He tried his best to smile.

"Hi guys."

**(To be continued)**


	13. Leo's gift

Akiza was so happy to see Yusei awake. She would have hugged him, but given the state of his back she knew that probably wasn't a good idea. Since so many people were around she just gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Jack? What happened to your arm?"

"He broke it when Lucifer beat him… He beat all of us."

For a few moments the room was quiet.

"Yes… He has all our marks, and now he's proclaimed himself a god and built his own temple."

"Where's Leo?"

"He's still recovering from playing hero last night. He tried to beat Lucifer on his own to protect Luna."

"Sure he lost, but he destroyed the Vilespawn Dragon!" said Crow.

"Leo… destroyed the Vilespawn Dragon?"

"Yeah you should've seen it! He summoned his Power Tool Dragon and equipped it with both Double Tool C&D and Megamorph. He would've won, except Lucifer had some fancy new spell card in his graveyard."

"Wow... I never would've guessed that Leo could… go head to head with Lucifer."

In a matter of moments Yusei felt the pain in his back again.

"I think you might need some more morphine."

"Well, give it to me straight guys… am I ever going to walk again?"

"The doctors say you'll recover, but it will take some time."

"Time… the one thing we don't have."

"Is my runner in as much bad shape as I am?"

"Oh… it uh…it blew up." said Crow.

"… WHAT!?!"

"After Lucifer beat the snot out of you he hurled some kind of energy ball at it, then the whole thing went up in smoke."

"But I saved your cards. And I kinda had to burn my hands to do it." said Rally showing him his bandages.

"Thank you Rally… I guess runners can be rebuilt or replaced… Still… That thing and I have been through a lot together…"

It took Leo a couple days to get over what Lucifer had done to him. Some of the doctors were afraid at first that he may have suffered extensive nerve damage, but he seemed to be alright.

"What's the situation Luna?"

"While Yusei recovers, Security is trying to make sure Lucifer doesn't try anything."

"And how do they intend to do that?"

"So far all they can do is try to keep him entertained."

"Do you think… if Yusei can beat him then Lucifer will lose his powers?"

"I hope so…"

Meanwhile, high up at the top of Lucifer's temple, he just defeated his fifth duelist of the day. Whenever a professional brave or foolish enough to face him didn't show up Security had to send one of their boys.

"Congratulations gentlemen, you've managed to keep me from getting bored for today… But… I'm afraid today's session is over… You all seem to forget one very important rule, it's not the cards that matter… it's the duelist who wields them… Oh and gentlemen… one more thing… RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTT

"AAAGGGGHHHH!!!"

**(Wait a second… the lightsaber's too much, lose it)**

Poof!

**(That's better)**

"How did Yusei take the news about his runner?"

"I have a feeling it hurts more than he's letting on."

"No duh, he supports himself and Akiza by doing what he loves."

"It's worse than that Leo…"

"How?"

"Uh… Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"Akiza told me that she wants to have a baby."

"Really? This is serious! How is Yusei supposed to take care of himself, Akiza, and a baby if he can't duel?!"

"Right now he needs to recover, we can worry about getting him back on a runner when he does."

"I wish there was something I could do… to help him…"

"What?"

"That's it! Where did they put the pieces of his runner?!"

"Leo?"

"Just tell me where it is, I have an idea!"

Yusei's runner was beyond repair, but after everything that he and that thing had been through it wouldn't seem right to just leave the pieces in the rain, so the others brought the pieces back to Yusei and Akiza's apartment.

"Leo, would you mind telling me what's going through your head?"

Leo took out the wooden trinket he had been carrying for months now.

"I know what it's for now! It's supposed to help us fix Yusei's runner!"

"And what makes you think it's going to do that?"

"I just know this is what it's meant for."

"Then why isn't it doing anything?"

Leo placed the wooden trinket on the ground beside the parts of Yusei's runner.

"Hocus Pocus… Abracadabra! Shazam! Open sesame! Just do something!"

"Leo…"

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light.

"What did you do Leo?!"

"I didn't do anything!"

Just like an explosion the light was gone in an instant. When Leo and Luna saw what had happened, they reacted with awe.

"Awwww…"

**(I said "awe." A-W-E.)**

"Whoa!"

**(That's better)**

What had moments ago been a pile of scrap had become Yusei's runner, and it looked brand spanking new.

"So when do I get to say I told you so?" said Leo.

"Okay, I guess it is more than just a piece of wood."

Suddenly Leo heard a voice.

"If you ever need it again, simply quote a Bible verse."

**(That's right, that's not all it can do)**

The weeks went by and Yusei slowly recovered. Eventually the time came for Akiza to take the test again; unfortunately it had the same result.

"I guess it's sort of a mixed blessing. If I'd conceived before my duel with Lucifer I probably would have had a miscarriage… still…"

"We'll just have to try again." said Yusei.

"This is going to be number seven."

"Don't worry; I've got a good feeling about this."

When Yusei said he had a good feeling, he meant that he longer feared the outcome would be positive.

**(To be continued)**


	14. On Top of the World

After weeks of recovery Yusei was finally on his feet again. He awoke beside Akiza, her skin was still glowing. Last night he had promised her that they would try again. He hoped it had worked, because he wasn't sure they'd get another chance.

"Did I wake you?" she asked.

"No, I was waiting for you."

The weather was ghastly outside. The weather forecast predicted that a heavy storm was coming out of nowhere. Yusei imagined that Lucifer had heard about his recovery by now and foreseen what he had resolved to do. He must have decided to set the stage.

"We… should get going. The others will be waiting for us at the Daedalus."

"I'm ready."

Yusei rode through the streets on his runner, but slower than usual. When he heard that it had somehow been miraculously repaired by Leo's trinket he was overjoyed, but his experience with Lucifer had left him uneasy, he would have to deal with this later, right now he had job to do.

"Look at the size of that thing…"

Even from a distance Lucifer's temple was a sight to behold, you couldn't even see the top. As Yusei and Akiza drew closer and closer it only seemed to stretch farther into the sky above. When they reached their destination they made their way through the reporters there and found the others at the bridge that connected Lucifer's temple to the Daedalus.

"Welcome back." said Rally smiling.

"A little premature Rally. I won't really be back until I've knocked Lucifer off his perch… And that battle starts now."

"He's at the top." said Trudge "My boys said the elevator at the foot of the central tower will take you right to him. He offers you to choose whether it's a regular duel or a turbo duel. If you choose the later then you'll race along these insane tracks all over the temple."

Yusei looked over at the temple. The towers were all interlinked and had huge helix spirals tracks along them, save for the central tower where there was a huge vertical drop all the way to the bottom.

"Has anyone challenged him to a turbo duel?"

"Yeah, and Security had to fish them out of the ocean." said Jack.

At that moment lightening came falling from the sky and struck the ocean close to the bridge, too close for comfort. The first few drops of rain followed suit.

"I guess I better get going."

"Yusei, promise me you'll come back safely."

"I will…"

As Yusei rode alone to the foot of the central tower he could hear Leo, Luna, Rally, and others cheering him on.

At that base of the tower Yusei found the elevator just like Trudge had said. As soon as he entered it began to rise to the top. The walls were transparent and he could see that the rain was beginning to pour. He continued to stare outside for about eight minutes.

"How tall is this thing?"

Yusei could now see the tracks that joined the towers together. In some places it was just a big circle, in some there was a figure eight, others there was a loop the loop, etc. Dueling on this thing would probably be like when he, Jack, and Crow went against Goodwin. He imagined that a single blast from Lucifer's Vilespawn Dragon would be enough to knock a person and their runner off the tracks, then they would have a very long time to wave goodbye.

The elevator continued to climb higher and higher, until finally it stopped. The door opened and Yusei exited, taking his runner with him. There was a huge dome above his head, supported only by a few pillars spaced evenly around the edge of the floor. There where no walls, and Yusei cold feel the cold wind that blew through. Far below the lights of New Domino City and the Satellite could be seen.

"Well… Back for more I see."

There was a huge golden throne on the other side with its back to Yusei. It spun around to reveal that Lucifer was sitting in it, smiling like he owned the world.

"Yusei Fudo… Satellite Shooting Star, The Dragon's Head, and husband to The Black Rose… Most people would have just laid down and died like dogs, but you're harder to get rid of than a cockroach on steroids."

"You have something of mine Lucifer… and I aim to take it back."

"Now Yusei… is that anyway to talk to a god?"

"You're not a god, you're just a false idol."

"Strong words coming from the first person to fall before my might… but I shouldn't make fun of you… after all we are brothers… in a way."

"What your creator did and planned to do was wrong… but that doesn't justify the things you've done… I'm here to make it right."

"… You came here to die."

Lucifer arose from his throne a stepped onto the arena that was before him and Yusei.

"Most men would never be able to bounce back after what you've been through, for that I'll humor you. So how do you want this?"

"This time we'll stay in one place." said Yusei activating his duel disk.

"You're still a little shaky from your little bad experience… It matter not the manner in which we do battle, it will have the same result." said Lucifer activating his own duel disk "I've been waiting weeks for a worthy opponent, I hope you won't disappoint me."

"Let's duel!"

All across New Domino City and the Satellite people were glued to their TV screens. Lucifer has been terrorizing the city for weeks now, now with Yusei back in commission, they wanted more than anything to see the so called "god" fall from the heavens.

"Ladies and gentlemen the duel between Yusei Fudo and the monstrous Lucifer is about to begin! This is bound to be the rematch of the century!"

Yusei's friends were far from being the only ones cheering his name.

"As your god, I shall go first mortal." said Lucifer "And I think I'll just play this monster in defense mode. Your turn…"

"Defense mode? When has Lucifer ever started a duel by playing a monster in defense mode?" asked Leo.

"How quickly you forget." said Tanner "Lucifer is all about taking his opponents by surprise. That's how he defeated all of you."

"Any idea what that card is?" asked Tank.

"Knowing Lucifer it could be anything."

From what he remembered of his first duel with Lucifer and from what the others had told him, Yusei could only think of one monster that he would place on the field in defense mode. He also knew that getting rid of it without hurting himself wasn't going to be easy.

"I'll place two cards face down and summon Rockstone Warrior in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1600)

"And with that I'll end my turn."

"Without attacking?"

"I'm not stupid Lucifer. It's your Kamikaze Dragon Golem, isn't it?"

Lucifer smiled as he showed Yusei his card.

"And as soon as I attack it both our monsters be destroyed without damage calculation, and then I'll take damage equal to my monster's level times 200. So I won't attack at all this turn."

"Wise decision mortal… but all for naught. First I'll play the spell card Hand Destruction, which forces us both to discard two cards from our hands and draw two new cards… Next I think I'll switch my Kamikaze Dragon Golem to attack mode."

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 2000)

"You were right about my monster's effect Yusei, but you forgot one little detail. It doesn't matter if he's being attacked or if he's the one doing the attacking. Kamikaze Dragon Golem, attack his Rockstone Warrior!"

"I don't think so! I activate my trap card, Scrubbed Raid! This continuous trap card let's me end the battle phase in exchange for giving up one card on my field. So by sending my other face down card to the graveyard, I can stop your golem in its tracks!"

Lucifer was still smiling, it was easy to tell he was enjoying this.

"Well played… But I trust you know you can't hide behind your little trap card forever."

"I don't plan to… I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 500)

"Now I'll tune my Junk Synchron to my Rockstone Warrior, in order to synchro summon Junk Archer!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 2000)

"You golem will destroy both our monsters if I try to attack it, and it's the only thing standing between me and your life points, so I'll just remove him from play with Junk Archer's effect!"

Junk Archer shot an arrow at Lucifer's golem, a moment latter it disappeared leaving its master wide open.

"Junk Archer, attack Lucifer directly!"

Junk Archer fired a shot that went right through Lucifer, but his life points didn't change in the least.

"I trust Leo bragged to you about his duel against me? Then you should know all about the Miracle Barrier card I sent to the graveyard just now with Hand Destruction's effect. By removing this spell card from play I can reduce all damage I take this turn to 0, and now I get to draw two cards from my deck."

"No one said it was going to be easy."

"Never easy, impossible, when you're fighting a god."

"If you're a god then why have you only destroyed?"

Lucifer didn't understand the question.

"You may be immortal and powerful, but you lack one vital quality found in a god, or at least you haven't shown any signs of having it, the power of creation."

Lucifer laughed.

"Have you not seen this magnificent temple? I have constructed?"

"That's not what I meant. Mortal men can create giant monuments, works of art, and so on out of materials. But only God has the true power of creation, the power to create life, not as your creator made you from then DNA of the others and myself, but to create something out of nothing and give them a soul that makes them unique among all others. Have you done so?"

Lucifer stopped smiling.

"I thought not."

"Don't listen to him Lucifer." said the spirit of the Vilespawn Dragon "He is only a mere mortal, he knows nothing about being a god."

"Enough talk, on with the duel."

"Very well, I'll end my turn with a face down."

Lucifer drew his card.

"Since your turn is over, my golem returns to me."

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 2000)

"Now I'll place one card face down and attack again with my Kamikaze Golem!"

"Then I'll counter again with my Scrubbed Raid!"

"Stopping the battle phase for the price of a single card, you gotta love it!" said Rally.

"Very well, since there are seven cards in my hand I must now discard one. Your turn."

"Junk Archer, remove his monster from play!"

"I think not, I activate the trap card Divine Wrath! By discarding one card from my hand, I can negate the effects of one of your monsters and destroy it!"

Yusei's Junk Archer was struck by lightening.

"Err… there's more than one way to skin a cat… I'll place two cards face down and summon Level Eater in attack mode!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 0)

"Level Eater, attack his Golem!"

Level Eater flew at Lucifer's monster, the resulting explosion consumed both of them.

"You may have gotten rid of my Golem Yusei Fudo, but you've only hurt yourself."

"Not really. Read the card, Level Eater is only a level one monster."

"WHAT!?!"

(Yusei: 3800)

"And since his level was so low, I only lost a mere 200 life points."

"Err… It is of no matter how quickly I decimate your life points. You've already lost one of your best monsters and I didn't need to pay any of my life points to do it. I'm just getting warmed up."

"And so am I."

"Then this should be interesting."

**(To be continued)**

**New illustration available on deviantart**

**Lucky number 7?**


	15. Déjà vu

So far Yusei and Lucifer had fought to a stand still, but that was only because they were just warming up. Down bellow Yusei's friends were watching what was happening on the big screen Lucifer had placed on the arch on the bridge that connected his temple to the Daedalus, trying not to get soaked by the raging storm in the process.

"Come on Yusei… you can do it."

"It's my turn." said Lucifer "I lay one card face down and summon Dragon Homunculus A in attack mode!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Next I'll place two copies of the spell card Stamping Destruction! I'll use one to destroy your Scrubbed Raid, and another to destroy one of your face downs, and now you lose 1000 life points!"

(Yusei: 2800)

"Sorry your highness, but one of the cards you destroyed was Limiter Overload, now I can special summon Speed Warrior from my deck!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 400)

"A lot of good that move is going to do you mortal. Dragon Homunculus A, attack!"

Speed Warrior was no match for Lucifer's homunculus.

"I activate the trap card Spirit Force! With this card I can negate the damage from your attack and add a warrior type Tuner monster from my graveyard with 1500 or fewer defense points to my hand."

"Trying to shield your life points? It will make no difference how soon you lose them."

"We'll see about that… I summon the Tuner monster I just brought back to my hand, Junk Synchron!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 500)

"And I'll use his special ability to special summon Speed Warrior from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 900 DEF: 400)

"And now I'll tune my Junk Synchron to my Speed Warrior, in order to synchro summon Junk Warrior!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1300)

"Now I'll equip him with Junk Barrage. Next I activate the spell card Emergency Card Stash! Since there are no other cards in my hand, this extremely rare card lets me draw six new cards from my deck. Now I'll play one card face down, and attack with Junk Warrior!"

Junk Warrior beat Lucifer's homunculus into the floor.

(Lucifer: 3700)

"And since Junk Warrior was equipped with Junk Barrage, you now take damage equal to half your monster's original attack points!"

(Lucifer: 2700)

"Err… You haven't seen the last of my monster… I activate the trap card Cloning Machine Type-X, with this I can special summon another Dragon Homunculus A from my deck!"

(ATK: 2000 DEF: 1800)

"Oh no! That's the only monster on his field! Now on his next turn he'll blow away Yusei's Junk Warrior with its special effect!"

"Don't worry Leo." said Akiza "If I know my Yusei, then he's not going to fall for the same trick twice."

"It's my turn! And since Dragon Homunculus is the only monster on my side of the field, I can automatically destroy one card you have out, namely your Junk Warrior!"

"Sorry Lucifer, but it's time I gave you a taste of your own medicine."

"What?!"

"I play my face down, Divine Wrath!"

Not only was Dragon Homunculus A's effect negated, the card itself was then blasted by lightening.

"Err… I activate the effect of my Cloning Machine Type-X! Now I can summon another Dragon Homunculus A from my deck, only this time in defense mode!"

(DEF: 1800)

"And I'll end my turn with a face down."

"Time to dish out some serious damage. I summon Road Synchron!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"Junk Warrior, attack his Homunculus!"

Junk Warrior destroyed the monster, taking 1000 more of Lucifer's life points with it.

(Lucifer: 1700)

Yusei expected Lucifer's face down card to be Cloning Machine Type-Y, which could special summon a monster from the graveyard for the cost of 800 life points, but Lucifer never reached for his card.

"Road Synchron, attack directly!"

(Lucifer: 100)

"Down to a mere 100 life points?! This duel is all but over!" exclaimed Rally.

"Don't celebrate too much." said Jack "It's never over until a player's life points hit zero, it doesn't matter how few Lucifer has, as long as he still has some this duel is still on."

"It's my turn, and I activate the trap card Cloning Machine Type-Z!"

"What does that one do again?" asked Nervin.

"As you may recall Yusei, when this card is active on my field, instead of summoning a monster this turn I can special summon a Dragon Clone Token."

(ATK: 500 DEF: 500 LV: 2)

"Now I activate the spell card Swords of Revealing Light! As every duelist in the world knows, you will now be unable to attack me for three turns."

"This seems awfully familiar." said Tank.

"That's because this is how he summoned his Vilespawn Dragon the first time!" said Blitz.

"Oh yeah."

"Err… Well… since I can't attack, I best start building up a defense."

Yusei looked over the cards in his hand.

"I summon Tuningware!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 300)

"Next I activate the spell card Double Summon, this allows me to summon my Quillbolt Hedgehog!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"And now I'll tune my Road Synchron to my Tuningware and my Quillbolt Hedgehog, in order to synchro summon Road Warrior!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 1500)

"Wow, look at all those attack points." said Lucifer "Too bad he can't use them."

"I know that, but since I used Tuningware for a synchro summon, I can now draw a card from my deck. Next I'll activate Road Warrior's special effect, with it I can special summon a level 2 or lower warrior or machine type monster from my deck once per turn, and for this turn I choose Fortress Warrior in defense mode!"

(ATK: 600 DEF: 1200)

"You can build up as many defenses as you want mortal… They will all be reduced to ash soon enough. But for now I'll just summon another Dragon Clone Token."

(ATK: 500 DEF: 500 LV: 2)

"And I'll end my turn by playing the spell card Dian Keto the Cure Master, which gives me back 1000 life points."

(Lucifer: 1100)

"Two can play at that game." said Yusei "I summon Healing Wave Generator!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 1600)

"And once a turn, I can use it's special effect to gain 100 life points multiplied by the level of one monster on my field, and I choose Road Warrior!"

(Yusei: 3600)

"And now I'll use Road Warrior's effect to special summon Turbo Booster in defense mode!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"First Fortress Warrior and now Turbo Booster. It doesn't take a genius to know what he's planning to do." thought Lucifer "But he didn't get a chance to use that combo in our last duel, and he won't get the chance now. I'll special summon another Dragon Clone Token!"

(ATK: 500 DEF: 500 LV: 2)

"And I'll end my turn with a face down… It's your last turn Yusei, I suggest you make it count."

"Err… First I'll place two cards face down, next I'll switch Junk Warrior, Road Warrior, and Healing Wave Generator to defense mode. Finally I use Healing Wave Generator's effect to gain 800 more life points."

(Yusei: 4400)

"Even with 4400 life point he won't be able to survive my next attack."

When Lucifer drew his card he smiled, Yusei and the others knew that could only mean one thing.

"I summon Vilespawn Egg!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 3000)

"And now I'll tune it to my three tokens in order to summon the Ultimate and the all powerful VILESPAWN DRAGON!!!"

Lightening split the sky, thunder shook the earth, rain cascaded down from the heavens, the wind roared, and then the Vilespawn Egg hatched in the same manner it did before to reveal the hideous monster inside.

(ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000)

"Stand strong Yusei!" said Rally

Yusei stared into the eyes of Lucifer's beast. He had promised Akiza that when all this madness was over that they would start their family, and that was what he was going to do, even if he had to walk bare foot through Hell to get there.

"Bring it on."

**(To be continued)**


	16. Fall from Grace

The Vilespawn Dragon looked down at Yusei and growled at him. Last time the creature and Lucifer had taken Yusei by surprise, but this time he knew what to expect.

"Scared mortal? You ought to be, because during the turn my Vilespawn Dragon is summoned, he gains 500 attack points for every synchro material monster I used to summon him."

(ATK: 5500)

"And by removing a Dragon type monster in my graveyard from play, my Vilespawn Dragon can use any abilities that monster may have. So by removing Dragon Homunculus C from play, my monster can attack you directly!"

The Vilespawn Dragon fired its attack.

"I don't think so! I activate my face down trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

"Guess you haven't learned anything from our last duel. I activate Dark Bribe!"

"Not this time." thought Yusei "I activate Seven Tools of the Bandit!"

Thanks to his trap cards Yusei survived, but not entirely unscathed.

"Don't forget mortal. Since you used Seven Tools of the Bandit you lose 1000 life points."

"That's nothing compared to what your monster would have done to my life points."

(Yusei: 3400)

"And since your turn is now over, the Vilespawn Dragon's attack points drop to their original value."

(ATK: 3500)

"Okay… Lucifer has 1100 life points left, and the Vilespawn Dragon is the only thing keeping me from them. Akiza told me that it can't be destroyed in battle, but I've got a way around that… But I shouldn't expose all my monsters, just incase it doesn't work… Okay… I activate the special effect of my Healing Wave Generator with my Road Warrior!"

(Yusei: 4200)

"Next I'll switch Junk Warrior and Fortress Warrior into attack mode!"

(ATK: 2300)

(ATK: 600)

"Now I'll attack you with Fortress Warrior, and I'll launch it with Turbo Booster!"

Fortress Warrior was sent flying at the Vilespawn Dragon.

"Yusei, you're so predictable. I activate another Divine Wrath, by discarding one card I can negate your Turbo Booster's effect!"

Turbo Booster's effect was negated and the card itself destroyed, meanwhile Vilespawn Dragon fired at the oncoming Fortress Warrior, but due to it's effect Yusei's life points were saved.

"Great, now there are two less monsters between that thing and Yusei's life points." said Crow.

"Well, I guess I'll end my turn by using Road Warrior's effect to special summon Turbo Synchron!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 500)

"It's my turn, and I play Dian Keto the Cure Master!"

(Lucifer: 2100)

"Next I activate my third and final Stamping Destruction, now not only is your precious Scarecrow destroyed, but you also lose 500 life points."

(Yusei: 3700)

"Next I'll remove the Dragon Homunculus B in my graveyard from play, and in doing so my Vilespawn Dragon gets to attack twice this turn!"

The Vilespawn Dragon blew away both Road Warrior and Yusei's Healing Wave Generator.

"Wait a minute, why didn't he attack Junk Warrior? He was wide open!"

"Leo, haven't you been paying attention. As long as Road Warrior was on the field Yusei could have kept special summoning monsters from his deck, and with Healing Wave Generator Yusei could keep getting more life points."

"Oh right."

"I switch Junk Warrior back to defense mode."

(DEF: 1300)

"Now I'll summon Ghost Gardna!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 1900)

"Next I'll activate the equip spell Synchro Boost, which increases his attack points by 500, and his level by one!"

(ATK: 500 LV: 5)

"Now I'll tune my Turbo Synchron to Ghost Gardna, in order to synchro summon Turbo Warrior!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 1500)

"Now I'll use him to attack your Vilespawn Dragon, and since it's a level eight synchro monster, its attack points are cut in half!"

(ATK: 1750)

"Didn't your wife tell you Yusei? Vilespawn Dragon can't be destroyed in battle!"

"Maybe not, but you'll still take some damage."

(Lucifer: 1350)

"Nice effect, too bad it only works when you're doing the attacking. Vilespawn Dragon, destroy his Turbo Warrior!"

(Yusei: 2700)

"The only monster I have left on the field is Junk Warrior, and there's nothing in my hand that can protect him from the Vilespawn Dragon's attack. Even worse I'll bet Lucifer is getting ready to use that piercing effect the others told me about… Come on deck don't fail me now."

Yusei drew his card.

"I'll place a card face down, and activate Magical Stone Excavation! By discarding two cards in my hand I can get back one spell card in my graveyard, and I choose Emergency Card Stash, which I'll now use to draw six new cards!"

"It's my turn, and I'll remove the Dragon Homunculus D in my graveyard from play so Vilespawn Dragon can obtain her piercing effect! Vilespawn Dragon attack Junk Warrior!"

The attack would have taken too much of Yusei's life points for his strategy to work, Luckily he came prepared.

"I activate the trap card Hallowed Life Barrier! By discarding one card from my hand I can negate all damage I take this turn!"

"Err… You're just delaying the inevitable mortal."

"He better watch who he's calling a mortal." thought Yusei "Because he's about to fall from the heavens. I summon Debris Dragon!"

(ATK: 1000 DEF: 2000)

"When this monster is successfully summoned, I can special summon a monster from my graveyard that has 500 or fewer attack points, and I choose Gauntlet Warrior!"

(ATK: 400 DEF: 1600)

"He wasn't in your graveyard!"

"Think again, remember when you played Hand Destruction?"

"Oh right…"

"And since there's a tuner monster on my side of the field, I can special summon Quillbolt Hedgehog from the graveyard!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 800)

"Next I activate the spell card Star Blast! By giving up 500 life points, I can reduce Gauntlet Warrior's level by one!"

(Yusei: 2200)

(LV: 2)

"Now I'll tune my Debris Dragon to Quillbolt Hedgehog and Gauntlet Warrior, in order to synchro summon Stardust Dragon! Let's rev it up!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

When the Stardust Dragon appeared it stared into the eyes of the Vilespawn Dragon and growled. It was payback time.

"And since Stardust Dragon was successfully synchro summoned, I can now special summon Stardust Xiaolong from my graveyard!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 100)

Suddenly Lucifer could feel the power inside of him fading.

"WHAT!?! WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS!?!"

"Next I activate the spell card One for One! By sending the Quickdraw Synchron in my hand to the graveyard I can special summon one level 1 monster form my deck."

Lucifer looked down, and too his horror the mark of the Crimson Dragon was no longer upon his chest, instead it was upon Yusei.

"NO!!!"

"I summon Majestic Dragon!"

(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)

"Now I'll tune Majestic Dragon to Stardust Xiaolong and Stardust Dragon, in order to synchro summon Majestic Star Dragon! Let's rev it up one more time!"

(ATK: 3800 DEF: 3000)

As Yusei's monster appeared in the sky the Crimson Dragon also broke free of the seal that bound it. The mighty beast roared and glared angrily at Lucifer.

"Now I'll activate Majestic Star Dragon's effect, which robs your monster of all its abilities and use them as my own. So like your Vilespawn Dragon, my Majestic Star Dragon gains 500 attack points for every monster I used to summon it!"

(ATK: 5300)

"Majestic Star Dragon, ATTACK!!!"

As the Vilespawn Dragon was engulfed by Majestic Star Dragon's attack it let out a loud roar of pain. The resulting explosion shook the whole palace.

"!!!"

(Lucifer: 0)

One by one the marks of the dragon returned to their proper bearers.

"Our marks… They're back! That means Yusei won!"

Back up at the top of the palace Lucifer was doubled over on the ground.

"I… I was a god… now it's all gone… I'm but a mere mortal and vulnerable to death…"

Suddenly Yusei realized what was going on in Lucifer's head. He had been given the gift of life by his creator, something he should never have been given in the first place, so all this time he was afraid of losing it.

"I'll never forgive you!"

Lucifer charged at Yusei, who fell back and kicked him higher into the air, sending him over the edge.

"!!!"

Yusei watched as Lucifer disappeared below. The echo of his scream continued for a few minutes. He breathed a sigh of relief, it was over. Suddenly the whole temple began to rumble and shake. Down below from the Daedalus bridge the others could see debris from the towers cascading down from below.

"THE TEMPLE IS COLLAPSING!!!"

Yusei had to think fast. He couldn't go back down the elevator, he'd never reach the bottom before the tower fell, and jumping was out of the question. There was only one thing to do.

**(To be concluded)**


	17. Success!

Yusei knew what he had to do; he stood at the edge of the tower. He hadn't gotten over the little scare he had experienced after his first duel with Lucifer, but it was now or never.

"Okay… let's do this!"

Yusei jumped onto his runner and started down the vertical slope of the central tower that went all the way down to the temple's base, and the city rushed up to meet him.

"This has got to be the craziest thing I've ever done."

Yusei's runner flew down the slope like a meteor as the tower collapsed behind him, he was breathless and terrified, and yet he never happier. He was going fast again! This was his world, his universe, this was what he loved. He knew it had all come back to him. After a few hundred seconds that seemed like an eternity Yusei's runner touched down on the ground, he sped away from the collapsing temple back to the Daedalus Bridge. Yusei couldn't stop at first because he had been going far too fast; in fact he had been going so fast he didn't notice that he had hit a speed bump sending him flying off his runner and into the air, when he hit the ground he heard a loud snap, then his life went black.

"Not again…"

Yusei wasn't aware of how much time had passed since his little accident on the bridge. All he knew was that the pain wasn't in his back, it was in his arm.

"I've had worse." he thought.

When he awoke he suddenly felt pain in face, it took him a minute to realize that Akiza had slapped him.

"Don't… ever… do that again." she said.

"Don't worry, I won't."

Just like that her mood changed and she kissed him.

"Riding down the side of a collapsing building, no problem, but going over a single speed bump broke your bone!" laughed Crow.

Yusei looked at the cast on his arm. Compared to his last accident this was nothing. Then again it was Lucifer who broke his back and not him falling off the runner.

"Is my runner okay?"

"Yeah, the runner's fine. Nothing you can't buff out."

"Good, when I'm finally ready to ride it for real again the last thing I want is for it to be blown up again."

"You were awesome Yusei! The way Majestic Star Dragon kicked that ugly creature's butt was so cool!" said Leo.

"What happened to Lucifer?"

"Security is still looking… they haven't found his body." said Luna.

"Sis, no one could survive a fall like that."

"I think Leo's right… for now let's just be glad we're all in one piece."

Yusei looked at his arm. The mark of the Dragon's Head had indeed returned to him.

"Now you really are back?" asked Rally.

"Yep… and this time I'm here to stay."

**(A few weeks later)**

When Yusei had finally got his cast off he went joyriding for awhile before he went home to Akiza. When he got there they received a phone call.

"Martha? What is it?"

"I just wanted ask Yusei, how far along is Akiza?"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on Yusei, you don't think you can fool me. I saw you two walking down the street the other day, I knew from the moment I saw her. How long were you two going to keep it a secret? Aren't you excited?"

Suddenly Yusei realized what she meant.

"Excuse me Martha, I'm going to have to call you back."

After hanging up the phone Yusei rushed over to his wife.

"Akiza, have you done the test yet?!"

After everything that had happened a few weeks ago Akiza had completely forgotten about it. She took the stick and dipped it into the liquid, suddenly she smiled as Yusei had never seen her smile before.

"It's changing color! I'm pregnant!"

She hugged Yusei so tight he thought he was going to suffocate.

"We're going to have a baby!"

"I guess seven really is a lucky number."

Now the events of the past couple weeks seemed like nothing more than a bad dream. Yusei was going to be a father, and he knew he was ready.

**(Insert record scratch sound effect)**

**Carly: Wait a minute, this is how it ends? But there's so many questions left unanswered. Like what's Akiza's baby going to be?**

**We'll get to that, but that's a story for another day.**

**Carly: Why can't we do it now?**

**Because this story is already 17 chapters long.**

**Carly: You're just being lazy!**

**Watch your mouth missy or I won't put you in the sequel.**

**Carly: NO!!!**

**Mina: How come I hardly get any lines in these things?**

**Sorry, I'll try to do better next time.**

**Trudge: And one more thing, why didn't I get to duel anyone in this story or the last one?!**

**Because I don't like you.**

**Trudge: Well I hate you! You snotty sonofa!!**

**And I didn't hear that.**

**(More profanities)**

**Jack: Carly, Mina, Trudge, are you three arguing with the narrator?**

**Carly: Uh… kinda… this is so embarrassing.**

**(The End)**

**Oh and one minor note before we sign off, if Yusei and Akiza are going to have baby, I need names people.**


End file.
